The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 5:

Lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic — and the emergence of new variants — resulted in a short supply of educators in the earlier parts of 2022.

Both Cullman City (CCS) and Cullman County (CCBOE) school districts addressed the issues by approving a temporary pay increase for substitutes from $75 per day to $125 for the duration of the 2021-2022 school year.

“This new [Covid] variant has hit us hard, not only with our students, but with our employees,” CCS Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff told The Times in February.

Nearly a month after announcing this increase CCS were able to add an additional 30 names to its substitute teacher database.

At the State level, Gov. Kay Ivey proposed a 4% pay increase for educators be included in the state’s unprecedented $8.3 billion dollar education budget. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels — from Huntsville — was “underwhelmed” by the governor’s proposal, saying that “anything less that 5% is a waste of time.”

After taking effect in October, the state budget gave teachers with less than nine years experience a 4% pay increase, Those with more experience received anywhere between 5 and 21% based upon the length of their tenure.

Pay increases will now also be received annually as opposed to every three years.

In addition to the pay increases provided by the state budget, CCS implemented their own “$1 million investment” adding an additional 1% pay increase to all employees — including child nutrition workers, custodians and special education aides — as well as sign-on bonuses, and substitute pay was set at $100 per day.

“Those are very difficult jobs for us to fill: custodians, the CNP (Child Nutrition Program) workers and cafeteria, special education aids. Those are positions where we post advertisements and we just don’t get a lot of applicants. and the reason is, is that it’s hard to compete with that same skill level employee [elsewhere] in the community,” Kallhoff explained. “There are businesses paying a lot more than we pay, and we’ll address that later on. We just can’t address it right now. But what we can do now is offer an incentive of $1,500 to try to get them to come join us.”

The CCBOE worked to attract top educators by hosting its first career fair in April, drawing the attention of educators from across the region. Meghan Black — a teacher from Mississippi — heard about the event from friends and told The Times that she had been eager to see what the district was able to offer.

“All I’ve heard is that this district is just amazing to work for, and I’m at a place in my life that I was ready for a change, so it was a pretty easy decision,” Black said.

CCBOE Superintendent Shane Barnette said that as the district continues to improve its results in test scores and graduation rates, the ability to attract the best teachers available was vital for continued success.

“It’s getting tougher every year to find educators, and with all of the improvements we have made over the years this has become one of the premiere systems in the state. So, we want to compete for the best. We are only as good as the educators in our classrooms,” Barnette said.