As the new school year begins for Clinton City School Monday, only three teaching positions are left to be filled, as of Friday, along with just a handful of others, with system administrators confident that hiring the classroom leads is likely to come quickly.
Interviewed Friday afternoon, Sheila Peterson, executive director of Human Capital for Clinton City Schools, said there are currently three teaching positions that remain open in addition to two instructional assistant positions, a school psychologist position and a speech and language pathologist position.
Peterson stated that the three vacant teaching positions will be filled with substitutes for the beginning of classes Monday, but she emphasized that those substitutes have teaching certifications. She also expressed great confidence that those substitutes would give the students in their classes a strong start to the academic year.
She further explained that the school psychologist as well as the speech and language pathologist positions have been open for two years, noting they are “difficult to fill.” She explained that since those positions are vacant, the district has to contract out to provide needed services to students, which costs more, and services are often virtual.
“Especially speech,” the human capital director expressed, sharing how difficult it is to find any speech and language pathologists who will come into the schools when they are not directly employed by the system.
Peterson said she doesn’t believe it will be long before all positions have been filled, especially the three teaching positions, sharing that there are six student teachers this year, “so we can fill the openings in multiple ways.” She wanted parents to know that they could feel confident because the system administrators had ensured that the best person was in each position, with the students’ success at the forefront of these placements.
She expressed her gratitude and confidence for the start of the school year.
“Compared to Wake County, we are extremely blessed to be set up for the start of the school year,” Peterson stated, highlighting the district’s readiness for students’ return on Monday.
Clinton City Schools Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson was confident the 2026-27 school year would begin with no staff openings. When interviewed on July 31, he noted that there were very few positions open across the district, with the main ones being two elementary teacher positions at Sunset Avenue and one AIG math position at Sampson Middle. The superintendent explained that there are more open positions listed on the Clinton City Schools website, but those additional ones are in the process of being filled.
He added that the three positions he listed were also being interviewed for and would likely be officially filled in the coming days, but one week later, the positions remain open, with certified teacher substitutes set to fill them for the Aug. 10 start to the school year.
“In Clinton City (Schools) we feel like we have a good culture, good community support and are excited for the start of the school year,” Johnson shared, expressing his concern for the well-being and health of all the teachers in his district and how he and his team work to keep teachers in their positions.
Johnson stressed that he did not anticipate starting the school year with any staff vacancies, explaining that human capital does a great job for the district.
“Put students first, but after students, staff,” Johnson said about the Dark Horse family he and his team work to maintain.