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>> THAT REALLY WAS WHAT WAS ECHOED. THERE IS AN IMPACT ON THE STUDENTS WHETHER THEY ARE IN A CLASSROOM WITHOUT A PERMANENT TEACHER OR EVEN IF THEIR TEACHER IS MOVED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. THAT IS WHY THEY SAY THEY WANT TO DO ALL THEY CAN TO KEEP GOOD TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM. SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION. HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS DO NOT HAVE PERMANENT TEACHERS. >> THEY HAVE CLASSROOMS THAT ARE NOT FULL. THEY START COMBINING CLASSES. >> THAT LEADS TO TEACHERS WITHOUT A JOB. >> THERE IS NO CONSISTENCY. >> PARENTS ARE ALSO CONCERNED. >> IT IS VERY SADDENING. >> THERE ARE MORE THAN 100 VACANCIES. >> IT DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE ANY AND INSIGHT. >> THE SPOKESMAN SAYS THEIR NUMBERS ARE NOT THE SAME. THERE ARE 46 VACANCIES BEING FILLED BY SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS. MAKING A TOTAL OF 70 VACANCIES, NOT INCLUDING MANAGEMENT. EACH SIDE HAVING A DIFFERENT REASON FOR THE JOBS. THE UNION BLAMES LAST YEARS LAYOFFS. >> THEY DECIDED TO LAY OFF 400 EDUCATORS. TEACHERS HAD LEFT FOR OTHER DISTRICTS. >> THEY RECRUITING EFFORTS WERE DELAYED. >> THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW STRIKES HURT STUDENTS. >> TODAY, THEY SAID THE CLASSROOM POSITIONS ARE 98% FILLED. THEY HAVE

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School has been back in session for less than a month in Sacramento, but hundreds of students don’t have permanent teachers in their classrooms. “They have these classrooms that are not full. They don’t meet the 24 or 23 kids that are supposed to be in the classroom, and so they start combining classes,” said Kristi Lofton. Lofton is a 13-year veteran educator. She explains that combined classrooms means teachers are without jobs.“There’s no consistency,” she said. Parents are also concerned. “It is actually very saddening,” said Melody Hall. According to the Sacramento City Teachers Association, or SCTA, there are more than 100 vacancies districtwide.“This has been going on now for weeks, and it doesn’t seem to have any immediate end in sight,” said SCTA President David Fisher. However, Alex Barrios, Sacramento City Unified School District spokesman, said there are 46 classroom teaching vacancies currently being filled by substitute teachers, plus 24 vacancies in nonclassroom positions like counselors, nurses, psychologists and librarians. That totals 70 certified vacancies, not including management or classified positions.The union blames last year’s layoffs for the unfilled jobs. “The district decided to lay off almost 400 educators right in the middle of a teacher shortage. Then when they went to rescind a lot of those layoffs, of course, teachers had left for other districts,” Fisher said. The school district, meanwhile, blames the teacher strike. Barrios said because of it, the district's recruiting efforts were delayed for a month. “This is just another example of how these strikes hurt students and hurt our ability to serve students,” he said. In a statement to KCRA, Barrios said:"Here are the latest District numbers: 70 total certificated vacancies (this figure does not include management or classified positions) 46 of these vacancies are classroom teaching positions currently being filled by substitute teachers 24 of these vacancies are in non-classroom positions (counselor, nurses, psychologists, librarians, training specialists)I do not have an approximate number of students “impacted” because that would require us needing more time to manually count, section by section, the number of students in each class with a substitute (class sizes vary by grade and by site). Here are numbers I do have: We have filled almost 98% of our classroom positions, which is normal for this time of year We have 1,800 classroom teaching positions We have approximately 500 substitutes on standby to fill in where needed"We wanted to know just how the Sacramento City School District vacancies compare to other districts of a similar same size and demographic. The Fresno Unified School District told us it has 11 classroom vacancies being filled by substitutes compared to the 46 in Sacramento.