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The Warren County School District is turning to online instruction and long-term substitutes to address a shortage of Spanish teachers at Eisenhower High School (EHS), prompting concerns about whether students are receiving an equitable education.
The issue came up last week during the Warren County School District School Board meeting as administrators presented the district's certificated personnel report for the upcoming school year.
The report included three long-term substitute hires, two temporary positions at the Warren County Career Center, four resignations, a retirement request effective at the end of the 2026-27 school year, two intermittent Family and Medical Leave Act absences, one tenure status and one internship practicum.
During the discussion, board member Misty Moore questioned why EHS is receiving a long-term substitute for Spanish while Warren Area High School has two Spanish instructors.
Moore said concerns about the staffing imbalance had been raised previously and questioned whether Eisenhower students would receive in-person Spanish instruction.
Supervisor of Secondary Education Elizabeth Kent said they explored the possibility of sharing a Spanish teacher between the two high schools but determined that scheduling constraints made that option unworkable.
Instead, the district plans to use the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional College (NPRC), as well as the district's Virtual Academy program for all levels of Spanish at EHS rather than a classroom teacher.
According to Kent, the NPRC program differs from the district’s virtual academy. The course includes weekly deadlines, video instruction, communication with an instructor and additional activities that can be conducted by the substitute teacher in the classroom.
Moore expressed strong reservations about the arrangement.
"I am really concerned that we are not providing equal education to the two high schools," Moore said.
Superintendent Gary Weber emphasized the decision was based primarily on the difficulty of aligning course schedules at the two schools.
Weber said the administration would have preferred to move a teacher between the schools if the schedules could accommodate the arrangement, but doing so would have left students at Warren Area High School without teachers for other courses they needed.
The board also discussed whether Eisenhower could look into another foreign language, such as French or German, as an alternative to Spanish.
Weber said the district has struggled to recruit teachers certified in foreign languages. In previous years, the district has offered a variety of languages, but finding qualified teachers for those subjects has become increasingly difficult.
The district is also working to help existing staff members obtain additional foreign-language certifications, administrators said.
Board members agreed that the district could revisit the scheduling issue for next school year and potentially restructure Eisenhower’s schedule so a Spanish teacher could be shared with Warren Area High School.
The discussion highlights a broader staffing challenge facing not only the Warren County School District, but the state as a whole, particularly in specialized subjects where qualified teachers remain difficult to recruit.