SOUTH BEND — Almost a month into the 2025-26 school year, district officals said the South Bend Community School Corp. is still in need of teachers and bus drivers.
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, SBCSC Superintendent Mansour Eid said that as of Sept. 12, the district has 28 teacher vacancies, compared to 112 as of Sept. 18, 2024. SBCSC is also engaged in negotiations with the local teachers’ union, he said.
SBCSC’s transportation department currently has 110 drivers, Eid said, and around 15 additional drivers are needed to completely insource the district’s bus drivers.
Eid said SBCSC hosted a hiring event in August, bringing on over 10 paraprofessionals, eight bus drivers and other new employees. There’s a second hiring event planned on Monday, Sept. 29 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Brown Administration Building, 737 Beale St., he said.
Open positions are listed on the district’s careers webpage.
Eid also gave an update on the student enrollment numbers. The official average daily membership won’t be counted until Oct. 1, but as of right now, there are 12,941 students currently enrolled, he said, including Pre-K and no-show students. The total enrollment excluding Pre-K is 12,508, Eid said, around 300 fewer than last year. As of Monday morning, he said, the district has around 333 no-show students.
Moving forward, he said, the district plans to address staffing shortages by increasing its internal capacity and continuing focusing on retention and recruitment.
“We are strengthening academics, operations, community trust,” Eid said. “Those are important, and then we are committed to improving, continuous improvement. We cannot afford to stay stale.”
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Rayleigh Deaton at rdeaton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend schools needs more teachers and bus drivers, plans hiring day later this month
Reporting by Rayleigh Deaton, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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