Amid teacher shortage in rural Montana, a ‘last resort’ hiring option has spiked — again

Superintendents are using a provision that grants schools an "emergency authorization" when they can’t find a correctly licensed teacher.

As this school year neared, Absarokee superintendent Dusty Sturm needed to make a business decision.

"We had just struck out on four different (teacher) candidates that took jobs elsewhere for business," he said.

Staring down the barrel of killing off the school’s business program for the year if he couldn’t find a teacher, Sturm offered the job to a recently hired school secretary who had a marketing degree. He used a provision that grants schools an "emergency authorization" when they can’t find a correctly licensed teacher.

MATT HOFFMAN [email protected]

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