Teachers

This year, as Nicole Ogburn prepares her classroom, her first priority is not the decorations she usually spends the summer picking out. Instead, it's buying things to make the classroom safer.

To help fill vacancies during a teacher shortage, a handful of teachers from Spain began working in Elgin ISD this month through a partnership with the Spanish Ministry of Education.

Tens of thousands of teachers in Texas have left the profession in the last year. The UT College of Education is trying to prepare and retain teachers as they face a range of challenges, from low pay to a lack of support in the classroom.

Eligible educators include K-12 teachers, principals, teachers' aides or counselors who spend more than 900 hours at the school during the academic year.

In the months ahead, trustees will decide whether to send a bond package to voters in November. One effort the bond could help fund is creating affordable housing on district-owned property to try to retain teachers getting priced out of the city.

Trustees approved a resolution calling on lawmakers to pass gun control legislation to prevent mass shootings. They’re demanding elected officials at all levels work together on solutions to keep campuses and communities safe.

Ninety percent of survey respondents said they were worried about a shooting happening at their school. Forty-two percent said that the most recent event in Uvalde made them question if they would return to school in the fall.

“Texas offers one of the most dramatic examples of grossly deficient pay for experienced teachers,” the NEA writes in a corresponding report.

The policy sidelines educators, often for two school years, at a time when districts are already struggling to keep teachers in the classrooms.

Thomas Mayfield helped raise test scores and engagement in the classroom, and now he's helping teachers in Fort Worth learn what he did.