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Orangeburg County School District's 'Grow' program to combat teacher shortage

It's a new program headed by the Orangeburg County School District to help classified staff members become certified teachers.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — A new program at the Orangeburg County School District is helping classified staff members become certified teachers.

The program is called 'Grow,' and it's goal is to combat the teacher shortage. The director of classified personnel for the school district says there are currently 36 teaching vacancies in the district. 

Rivelon Elementary School has one first-grade teacher vacancy. The principal of the elementary school says she has five staff members in the program looking to fill in the void.

Tonia Johnson is working to trade her office at the school in for a classroom.  

"When I came here, I became the school's bookkeeper," Johnson said. "Being around the children and seeing the needs they have made me feel good to go in the position of teaching."

"With COVID-19, we knew that we could not hire a lot of people outside of our district," explained Loretta Gadson-Washington, Orangeburg County School District's Director of Classified Personnel. "Growing our own teachers covers the bases to fill the vacancies."

Credit: Devin Johnson

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"Teachers know the smaller the group, the better it is to work with all of the children in your classroom," said Dr. Rena Bowman, Rivelon Elementary's Principal. "Right now, those two teachers have a large group of children, and it's making it difficult to work with all of them."

So far, there are 97 classified staff members in the Grow program. As for Johnson, she says she is looking forward to her transition in growing young minds.

"I've always worked with adults," Johnson said. "I've never had the chance to work with children. This is going to be an easy journey for me."

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