Kansas City Public Schools superintendent addresses staff shortages [Video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Across the country, school districts are grappling with shortages in the classroom and getting students to school.

Kansas City Public Schools recently made two major announcements: raising teacher pay and the hiring of a new bus company.

KCTV5 anchor Sharon Chen sat down with superintendent Dr. Jennifer Collier to discuss how she’s banking on the multimillion-dollar investments to address the shortages.

Sharon: “Let’s begin with this, when it comes to teachers how bad are the shortages and in what areas are they?”

Dr. Collier: “Starting this school year I believe we started with about 30 vacancies, we see it at almost every constant area, at every level of elementary, middle and high school.”

Sharon: “To deal with that shortage one of the things you did was raising teacher pay, $4.7 million for 1100 educators in the district. It’s about a $2,000 increase for most of them, …