A Union County woman returned to her hometown school district to fill a teaching vacancy, as dozens of other positions remain open.

In an update Monday on the first day of the 2022-23 school year, Union County Public Schools said the current number of teacher vacancies was at 101. In the week before classes resumed, Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said the number of vacancies was 118. Overall, Houlihan said 95% of classes had a teacher and each district school had a staffing plan to cover any other vacancies.

What You Need To Know

  • As of Monday, UCPS said it had 101 teaching vacancies

  • Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said focused incentives are being offered to fill vacancies

  • One of the county's newest teachers is returning to her former elementary school

Union County and many other North Carolina counties are continuously attempting to bring new teachers to their districts, often competing with one another and neighboring states.

Earlier this summer UCPS announced it would provide a $4,000 recruiting and retention to bonus for new and existing teachers at four schools with the biggest need to fill vacancies. 

Those schools are Monroe Middle and High School, Forest Hills High School and East Union Middle School.

“The [hiring] pool has become a puddle. We’ve got to do something different in education to recruit and provide interest — high schoolers who are interested in this pathway of teaching. Compensation has a lot to do with that, here in UCPS we do as much as we can using whatever funds are available to provide stipends, incentives and bonuses,” Houlihan said last week, when asked about the competition for teachers. 

However, a former UCPS student filled one of the district’s vacancies this summer, a direct result of one of the district’s high school programs aimed at creating new teachers.

“I actually took a teacher cadet course, and I was at Hemby Bridge, and I would just come here during my first block class, and that right there really told me that I wanted to be with kids,” said new second grade teacher Brianna Wheelock.

Wheelock is back at Hemby Bridge Elementary School, which she attended in her youth, to teach the next generation of Union County students.

“I actually went to school at Hemby Bridge, K through 5, and this is actually the same classroom that I went to in second grade as well,” Wheelock said while showing off her decorated classroom.

Wheelock is a graduate of Wingate University’s class of 2021, specializing in elementary education. Last spring, she was a math tutor at Hemby Bridge, before being brought on as a teacher this school year.

“It’s honestly like a full circle moment. It’s really cool getting to work next to the teachers that I once were taught by,” Wheelock said. She added that five to 10 of her old teachers still work at the school.

However, Wheelock almost didn't end up back in the classroom. Originally, she said she thought she wanted to be a nurse and went to college with the goal to get a nursing degree. Eventually, she said memories of the experiences from her teaching cadet course inspired her to switch majors and set a course to return to the classroom.

“I really just wanted to do it for the kids. Something that sticks out to me as I grew up is the teachers that I’ve had. They’re the ones that made the difference in my life and how I grew as a person. So, I wanted to be that person for these kids that I’m going to have,” Wheelock said.

This year, Wheelock will have just under 20 students in her classroom and said she is really looking forward to teaching them math and science.

“It just brings joy to me, they have that want to actually learn. So, it makes it fun for me to teach that want,” Wheelock said.

In the meantime, Houlihan, in his comments to Spectrum News 1 last week, said work will continue to bring more teachers to UCPS and encourage the ones already here to stay.