PRESCOTT, Ariz. — After a 17-year hiatus from teaching high school English, Pamela Beitzel decided she missed the classroom. The Prescott area business owner’s resume included teaching French, AP English and working as an English department chair.
“I decided to get re-certified thinking I would start substituting and then possibly find a full-time position again,” Beitzel said.
Beitzel submitted the necessary documents to the Arizona Department of Education for recertification on Aug. 3. As weeks passed, the ADE told her they were backed up. On Monday, more than 11 weeks after Beitzel first applied, an ADE employee told her it would take another five weeks.
“It was very, very frustrating,” Beitzel said. “It got to the point that I felt I wasn’t wanted.”
Valley school districts tell 12News they are also seeing delays for teacher certifications. One district said it is taking 12 to 14 weeks for the state to process them, and administrators of five other Valley school districts say their ability to make new hires is being delayed.
“ADE has shared they are too busy and backlogged when we have inquired about the delays,” said one administrator, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern of retaliation.
Superintendent: Staff are working 'extraordinarily hard' to process certificates
As schools seek to hire more teachers, public school districts are at a disadvantage. Private and charter schools do not require state certificates.
“It’s true, I could go to a private school instead of waiting, but I wanted to support public schools,” Beitzel said.
Superintendent Tom Horne’s office tells 12News the department’s 12-person certification unit is working “extraordinarily hard” to process applications. This month the department retired “an old obsolete computer system” and transitioned to a new system that is meant to streamline the application process, Horne said.
“This month, in particular, was a high-volume time for the Certification Unit. It included the sunsetting of our legacy system, the final testing and launching of the new system, data migration, and troubleshooting,” AZDE spokesperson Doug Nick said in an email.
Right now, the unit is processing several thousand applications, in addition to other duties, the education department tells 12News.
“We are working through those in addition to the calls, emails and walk-ins that occur each business day,” Horne said by email.
'I would hope we would put a little more resources towards certifying teachers'
After 12News contacted Horne’s office on Tuesday about Beitzel’s case, the department processed Beitzel’s certification within 24 hours. Horne said Beitzel’s case does not represent a system-wide problem. However, it’s clear that some districts are experiencing delays that are not typical.
Several states report on their websites their average processing time for certifications is one to six weeks. The average processing time for the month of August was about nine weeks, ADE reports.
Individuals waiting for a teacher certificate have the option to pay fees for an emergency or substitute certification, said a spokesperson for the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association.
Arizona Faces Chronic Teacher Shortage
Arizona public school districts already face chronic teacher shortages.
The organization that tracks teacher positions, the ASPAA, reported in September the results of a survey of more than 100 districts. It concluded there were at least 8,800 full-time positions that needed to be filled, representing about 22% of all positions. Most of those vacancies are being filled by long-term substitutes.
“I would hope we would put a little more resources towards certifying teachers so we can get them into the classroom,” Beitzel said. “I’ve lived in Arizona my entire life and it just seems public education has become less and less of a priority.”
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