By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT–When new hires are asked to rise during the district’s annual staff convocation on August 24, expect about 30 people to rise. Most won’t be teachers.

Included in the mix will be teacher aides–or para educators, custodians, and secretaries, along with teacher interns and several coaches and assistant coaches for sports teams, according to Assistant Superintendent John Bayers.

The district of some 800 employees is well on its way to filling vacancies that at one time totaled 51 positions. Bayers called it a process and that most vacancies–particularly teaching positions–are expected to be filled by the start of school.

“The number of openings is not unusual,” Bayers said.

Most of the openings are replacements for 19 retirees, as well as staff who have taken positions in other districts.

There will also be new positions: an additional special education teacher at Bedford Middle School, possibly an additional elementary school teacher depending on enrollment and an Assistant Director of Facilities and Security _ a position added by the school board in the 2026-27 budget session to handle an increase in facilities projects.

“We’re still working to identify a candidate for that position,” Bayers said. “We know it was a priority for the board.”

Teachers

Another primary goal is to have every certified position filled and as much as possible every para educator spot, Bayers said.

The district keeps an open posting for an elementary education teacher up each summer in anticipation that a class section may need to be added or a teacher unexpectedly resigns before the new school year.

The board’s budget calls for 119 elementary classrooms between five elementary schools. There may be the need for one more.

The district also just posted an opening for a high school English teacher to replace a teacher who got an administrative position in another district.

A starting salary in Westport for a teacher fresh out of college is $56,000. The district just recently hired a veteran teacher to fill an opening that will be making close to $130,000, Bayers said.

Bayers said the goal is always to find the best candidate.

In all, there five openings for certified teaching positions remain.

“About the same as last year,” Bayers said. 

Much better than past years

And nothing like four summers ago, before the start of the 2022-23 school year, when an unexpected surge in enrollment led to the hiring of more than 100 new staff members.

The district is also still looking for paraprofessional openings at Saugatuck Elementary School, according to the district web site.

Last spring, Greens Farms Elementary School lost eight staff members, but Bayers called it just an unusual year of retirements in that building. Some of the retirees had been in the classroom for close to three decades.

In the case of most new hires, building principals facilitate the search process with the help of a committee. Finalists are then vetted by the central office before being offered a contract.

Bayers called it a collaborative effort.

As for filling vacancies in shortage areas, Bayers said the district has at least one, a special education position.

“A team was involved today with interviewing candidates,” Bayers said.

These days shortages extend beyond special education, math, sciences and languages and librarians.

“History and social studies is now considered a shortage area,” Bayers said, adding he found that hard to believe.

The state’s 2026 list of teacher shortage areas has yet to be released to the general public.

Linda Conner Lambeck

^{_{Linda Conner Lambeck covers education for Westport Journal. She was a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications. She has covered education throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties. She is a proud member of the Education Writers Association.}}