'BIDDING WARS': Alabama schools compete to fill vacancies amid statewide teacher shortage
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File / The Outlook

Dadeville High School math teacher Sujindren Selvanayagam writes an exercise on the board. Math, science and special needs educators tend to be the hardest to recruit.

With the first day of school less than a month away, Alabama public schools are scrambling to fill new vacancies following the highest number of teacher and support staff retirements the state has seen in nearly a decade.  

"I hate to say it (but) there are actual bidding wars now going on for individuals," Tallapoosa County Schools superintendent Ray Porter told the school board Monday, following the surprise resignation of the Dadeville High School band director that morning. "Right now, I'm proud to say that the direction we're heading is drawing people to our county, and that's a blessing. But at some point we may have to address the bidding war that's going on."