public school districts preparing for the new school year will have their work cut out for them addressing the teacher shortage that's still plaguing New Jersey and most of the country the issue spurred a number of ideas from the legislature to ease the problem including sending retired teachers back to the classroom but is it working Raven Santana reports the kids need us they they need a good education and the day doesn't go smoothly for for kids when there aren't the teachers there to teach them Perry steel has been in the educational field for over 40 years and just when he thought he hung up his title as a teacher and principal for good he says his heart not his wallet brought him out of retirement however this time he's a substitute teacher you know I don't even think of the salary but it's just it's just a time to give a give give of yourself and give to the kids our school districts continue to Grapple with teacher shortages retirees like steel are stepping in to help fill the gaps the trend is in part due to a law Governor Phil Murphy signed that allows retired teachers to go back to work and earn a salary without losing their pension benefits the law is a reiteration of one he signed in 2021 which allowed retirees to come back for the 2022-2023 school year since then about 120 positions have been filled by retirees and school districts across the state I was needed you know there were so many days that classes were canceled because of substitutes of a lack of substitutes um they were hiring a lot of the substitutes as power professionals instead of teachers so the substitute pool was not there John zurco says after 35 years of teaching he was enjoying his retirement until the teacher shortage hit close to home I realized in that year of lockdown my wife is a preschool teacher my daughter's a preschool teacher excuse me and in our home my wife was working out of our office because it was that year of lockdown my daughter was on our front porch we converted that into a classroom for her um and I realized you know what this is what this is who I am Hiring Our retired teachers there's a lot of reasons why it's a benefit for us number one they've been in the classrooms they know how schools operate number two they know their content and that is an important piece of instruction and number three they had a career where they had been successful so coming back in they quickly get back into the routines and procedures of the school bringing back retirees is one of the many tools that superintendents are using to try to staff their classrooms amid the ongoing teacher shortage Hamilton Township superintendent says pay has been his greatest hurdle in keeping teachers well we've seen first teachers whether they're non-tenured teachers or tenure teachers who have been established in the district we've seen them go to other districts for additional funding additional salaries and so what you have is across the state across the country is you have our our teaching staff has the ability to seek out other employment in other districts and increase their salaries because we are in a danger zone here NJEA President John Spiller got straight to the point when summarizing the current state of teacher Staffing the challenges we've got to want them to stay from the start we've got to want them to not get out early and retire we've got to not want them to leave and go into another profession Spiller says the goal is now to focus on barriers to becoming a teacher without lowering standards for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music] [Music]