While Mathews County Public Schools is facing challenges with teacher staffing, it’s certainly not a problem that Mathews is facing alone.

“It is a crisis. But it’s not a uniquely Mathews crisis,” said division superintendent Dr. David S. Daniel, who sat down last week to discuss some of the community’s concerns as well as actions the division is taking to ensure qualified teachers are in the classroom.

Right now, there are three positions in MCPS that are being filled on a temporary basis with long-term substitutes, Daniel said during an interview last Thursday morning, although he added he expected that number to drop to two, with an interview with a teacher candidate set up for later that week.

Daniel pointed to a recently released draft report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, looking at “Virginia’s K-12 Teacher Pipeline” for 2023. In that report, JLARC found that, statewide, teacher vacancies and reliance on less than fully licensed teachers has inc...