With less than a month before school begins, Gary Community School Corp. staffers made one thing clear during Thursday’s school board meeting — the district is hiring.

Staff members and school board members wore white T-shirts with a QR code on the back and the message, “We are Hiring!”

The first day of school is Aug. 7.

Teachers are the most prized employees, including special education, physics, and secondary content teachers.

Gary’s website cited 81 job openings, including 36 teacher vacancies.

To ensure students have a qualified teacher in each classroom, the board retained Proximity Learning, an Austin, Texas-based company that operates a virtual teaching program led by licensed teachers.

Locally, Lake Ridge Schools have used Proximity teachers, and its former superintendent, Sharon Johnson-Shirley, offered a testimonial featured on Proximity’s website. She said Lake Ridge had been relying on substitutes, and she praised the impact Proximity teachers provided.

In many cases, Gary has been relying on classroom teachers who work under emergency state permits. Those teachers have a bachelor’s degree, but they aren’t licensed to teach.

Chief Human Resources Officer Jovanka Cvitkovich said about one-third of the district’s teachers worked under emergency permits last year. She said many had permits that could not be renewed because the teachers didn’t meet Indiana’s requirements.

“We’d prefer someone who has expertise, albeit on a screen with a classroom facilitator in place,” Cvitkovich said.The district’s ultimate goal is to have a live teacher, she said.

“This provides flexibility, they’re here for us as that backup. … We can’t keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the past seven years, which is having teachers not licensed. This is a backup to make sure students get what they need, which is high-quality instruction.”

Chief Academic Officer Cynthia Treadwell also endorsed Proximity.

“It’s a very unique opportunity given what’s at stake. We are really trying to drive academic outcomes. When we have teachers that don’t have that pedagogy, there’s a huge gap. We know high-quality teachers make a difference.”

Superintendent Yvonne Stokes said each Proximity teacher would cost the district about $70,000, but the district would also have to hire a facilitator in each classroom as a backup for the online teacher.

Proximity Vice President Michael Robinson said there’s a national teaching shortage with 600,000 open jobs.

“Don’t feel like you’re in this by yourselves,” he said.

Founded in 2009, Robinson said Proximity has served more than 500,000 students in states across the country.

The board also gave Stokes temporary authority to hire new staff members because the board doesn’t have a meeting before school starts. Teachers start work Aug. 4.

In other business, the board voted 4-0, without discussion, to allow Gary-based Edgewater Health to offer an on-site student health center at the West Side Leadership Academy.

Stokes said the collaboration wouldn’t cost the district, other than the space at West Side.

Community HealthNet, of Gary, was the other applicant.

Board member Danita Johnson-Woods, president and chief executive officer of Edgewater, recused herself from the vote.

Cvitkovich said Edgewater has offered day treatment services to the district for the past 50 years, including counseling, crisis and trauma services, teacher training and parenting workshops.

She said it should be a seamless transition.

Karen Bishop Morris, Edgewater’s chief development officer and communications director, said the board’s support represented a vote for integrated health services.

“This is an amazing opportunity for us to continue and expand our partnership… improving access to care. We hope it will reduce absenteeism,” she said.

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.