Conley
As a bill making it easier for North Carolina professionals to enter the classroom as teachers was signed into law last week, the local school superintendent thinks it’s a good idea.
Gov. Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 582 into law June 24. The bill allows North Carolina professionals to enter the classroom as adjunct instructors after a semester of teacher training courses at a community college. The bill, which was sponsored by state Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) and Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Harnett), received unanimous support in both chambers of the General Assembly.
“I think it’s great,” Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Jeana Conley said. “We are in the midst of a teacher shortage, and anything we can do to get good people in the classroom in a short amount of time I’m all for.”
Under the new law, adjunct instructors would work part time teaching up to 20 hours a week or less than six months of time to avoid the need for a teaching license. Prior to teaching, a prospective adjunct educator would need to take about three teacher preparation classes.
Those teaching under the provisions would be known as “adjunct instructors, and would only be allowed to teach classes related to their undergraduate or graduate degrees. The law allows these instructors to teach core academic subjects, arts classes and foreign languages fitting with their knowledge and work experience.”
The bill also states that districts will be responsible for teaching some parts of the training, including how to deal with students with disabilities and how to handle discipline in the classroom.
“Previously, people had to take classes at a university, but this allows of them take them at a community college,” Conley said.
Corbin spoke to the bill’s bipartisan support and emphasized that the bill was not intended to usurp trained professional educators already in North Carolina classrooms.
“In no way do we want to replace our very valuable teachers in North Carolina,” Corbin said. “What this does is address the shortage in some systems for some classrooms, which would help relieve the pressure on our principal and superintendent to get those classes covered.”
“This is a great example of working across the aisle to address the needs of our state,” he added.
Burgin added that the bill would also give opportunities to older professionals who were nearing retirement, but not ready to leave the workforce altogether.
“I think this is going to give a real opportunity for a lot of people that are not ready to retire and go home and go into the schools and hemp these young people get excited about education again,” he said.
Conley said the bill could have a positive effect on county schools.
“It will enable us to recruit some good folks from the private sector into the classroom,” she said.