Hannah Baleme/MDN From the right are Bryn Iverson, Minot Public Schools assistant superintendent- elementary level, and Scott Faul, MPS assistant superintendent- secondary level, standing in front of the Minot Public Schools Administration Building.

A new school year has begun for Minot students. Like most of the nation, North Dakota has been facing growing concern over teacher shortages this past decade, further exacerbated by the pandemic.

However, Bryn Iverson, assistant superintendent of Minot Public Schools at the elementary level, said they have seen a huge turnaround this past year.

Currently at the elementary level there is only one teaching position left to be filled.

Iverson said they were able to find certified teachers for all other positions.

Unfortunately, things have not been so lucky in the middle school and high school departments.

“The secondary level is where we have shortages due to the content being very specific at that level,” said Iverson.

Assistant superintendent of MPS at the secondary level, Scott Faul said middle school and high school teaching positions have been much harder to fill because they require special skills such as welding, counseling and foreign language.

“We have had such a hard time finding a foreign language teacher that we have to compensate by having students take a current technology education class instead,” said Faul.

Secondary teachers are required to take overloads of classes this upcoming year. Faul said that normally, MPS teachers get two preparation periods but now they will have six classes and only one preparation period.

“Despite getting compensated extra for it, this puts a lot of burden on our teachers,” Faul said.

The demand has gotten to the point at which they have asked retired teachers to come back for the time being.

Faul said they will be bringing back the retired welding teacher and counselor to long-term substitute while they look for alternatives.

“We feel fortunate the shortage is only affecting certain classes and not core content courses because there are plenty of districts with core content shortages,” Faul said.

While the demand for teachers continues to grow, Scholaroo, an education research firm and scholarship engine, has released the second edition of the “Teacher Shortage in the U.S. 2023.” The study examines the number of public school teachers in each state compared to student enrollment figures.

As a result of the analysis, Scholaroo discovered North Dakota to be third in the nation with the lowest teacher shortage, after Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Minot Public School District currently has 7,807 students enrolled in K-12 but is enrolling new students every day, and the numbers will likely go up.

Minot Public School District enrollment numbers are as follows:

Magic City Campus -984

Central Campus – 1,054

Erik Ramstad – 682

Jim Hill – 844

Memorial Middle – 176

Bel Air – 268

Bell – 84

Dakota – 268

Edison – 438

John Hoeven – 428

Lewis & Clark – 411

Longfellow – 420

McKinley – 60

North Plains – 229

Perkett – 396

Roosevelt – 108

Sunnyside – 282

Washington – 289

Memorial Middle, Dakota and North Plains are located at Minot Air Force Base.

Among schools in Minot, Bishop Ryan Catholic School has 435 students, Nedrose Public School, 611 students, and Our Redeemer’s Christian School, information unavailable,

School will begin for Minot Public School District schools on Wednesday.

Nedrose also begins on Wednesday.

Bishop Ryan began on Thursday, Aug. 17.

Minot State University classes started Monday, Aug. 21.

Our Redeemer’s classes begin Wednesday.