Ever so slowly, Kansas schools are running out of teachers.

“I went to a career fair at Fort Hays State University last year, and there were more superintendents looking for teachers than there were teachers looking for jobs,” said Ken Bockwinkle, principal at the junior and senior high school in Tribune, a small county-seat town 16 miles from the Colorado border.

It’s not much different in Seneca, 12 miles south of the Nebraska border north and west of Topeka.

“I’ve been superintendent here for 11 years now, and I can honestly say this year has been the most challenging, especially in the area of special education,” said Seneca school Supt. Brian Harris.

Science teachers, too, are scarce. “I have a science teacher who’s about to retire in two or three years,” Harris said. “When he goes, I’ll be lucky to get one or two applications.”

The shortage was the subject of a recent study by the Legislative Division of Post Audit.

The auditors found that while only one-half of a percent of the state’s 34,000 teaching positions went unfilled last year, 5.4 percent were filled by teachers who either weren’t licensed or were teaching subjects outside their expertise.

Other findings:

¢ About 16 percent of the state’s teachers change jobs each year; roughly 9 percent leave teaching altogether, while the remaining 7 percent move from one school to another.

Teachers who move from one district to another tend to move from west to east.

¢ Almost one-third of the state’s teachers leave the profession within their first three years on the job.

The national rate is about one-half.

¢ An ever-increasing number of teachers are nearing retirement age. Five years ago, 27 percent of the state’s teachers were older than 50; today, it stands at 34 percent.

Almost one-fourth of the state’s teachers will be eligible to retire in the next five years.

¢ Kansas’ starting salaries rank sixth in the nation, but those for experienced teachers – those with master’s degrees and 20 years of experience – rank 36th.

The study was requested by the state’s 2010 Commission, an 11-member panel charged with recommending ways to improve Kansas schools.

“It pretty much said what we’ve known for the last four or five years,” said Rep. Sue Storm, D-Overland Park, a member of both the commission and the House Education Committee.

“We’re seeing a shortage now, and it’s going to get worse,” said Storm, who taught for 42 years before retiring this year.

Storm said she was alarmed to learn that 5.4 percent of the state’s teachers are not certified.

“Let’s put it this way – I wouldn’t want to have a surgery performed by someone who wasn’t certified,” she said. “That’s a stretch, I know, but, still, (teacher) certification is important.”

In the coming months, the 2010 Commission is expected to come up with a plan for recruiting and retaining more teachers.

“The two things that I saw that I think can do the most good are to really get behind our mentorship programs and let individual schools take charge of professional development,” said Rochelle Chronister, a commission member.

“If we could get that 30 percent figure – the number of teachers who leave in their first three years – down to 10 percent, it would make a big difference,” said Chronister, a former state representative from Neodesha.

Lawrence public schools appear to be faring better than most in the state.

“The state percentage of teachers who are either not certified or teaching subjects outside their field is 5.4 percent; we’re at 4 percent,” said Mary Rodriguez, the Lawrence district’s director of human resources.

Rodriguez said she expected to have four or five teaching positions – out of 890 – vacant this fall, all in special education.

The study, she said, underscored the importance of the district’s mentoring programs.

“We have three full-time veteran teachers on release this year who will be going from building to building, working with new teachers who are new to the district,” Rodriguez said. “And we have peer mentors in each building, working with teachers who are new to the districts.”

Rodriguez noted 42 percent of the district’s teachers are age 50 or older. The state average for teachers 50 and older is almost 34 percent.

“What that says, I think, is that once we get them here, they tend to stay,” Rodriguez said.