Squinting at his schedule, the freshman thinks there must be a mistake: there’s a blank space where his English teacher’s name should be. But it’s not a mistake, it’s simply a symptom of the regional, statewide and even nationwide teacher shortage.

The English Department is still trying to fill two positions — one is full time and one is a first-semester position — and is awaiting the arrival of a teacher who will fill the third opening. Other positions in  the science and math departments were filled less than a week before school.

“When we showed up, we had a sub and we didn’t really know what to do,” said sophomore Jacky Vargas who has had two English substitutes this year and is unsure of when her permanent teacher will arrive. “I thought we weren’t going to do anything because we didn’t have a permanent teacher, and now there’s nothing in the grade book so it’s the only class I don’t have a grade for.”

Until the positions are permanently filled, returning teachers will continue to support substitutes with lesson plans and general guidance.

“We’re in the process of looking for a strong teacher, and in the meantime, Mr. Rosario has been providing lesson plans to make sure that the students in the ICAP sections that are not his get the same curriculum,” said English Department Chair Jonathan Hoffman.

Although this year is somewhat of an anomaly, teacher turnover and the fluctuation of student numbers and budget that occurs leading up to start of the year mean new classes and teachers often need to be added with short notice.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle and National Public Radio, high housing prices also make it difficult to afford living in the Bay Area on a teacher’s salary, so filling positions can be a challenge. According to Zillow, the median home price in Redwood City is upwards of $1 million, and the median rent is $4,200 per month, while the first-year annual teacher salary in the Sequoia Union High School District is around $59,722. In comparison, the average first-year salary for a teacher in San Francisco Unified High School District is $47,629, while it is $71,293 in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District.

There’s also been a nationwide drop in the number of teacher credentials being issued each year, and while, according to the New York Times, the national drop has been 30 percent, the decrease in California has been 55 percent. The state needs to fill 21,500 positions, but only around 15,000 teachers get their credentials in California each year.

“Given that teaching credential programs cost between $10,000 and $20,000 [or more], that you invest two years of your life, one year you have to teach for free as a student teacher– you can see that you’re making it hard for somebody to go through a teaching credential program unless they really want to,” said math teacher Subathra Ramanathan, who came to Sequoia this year and found out that she would be teaching Algebra I and Algebra Support classes the day before school started.

Summer hires are not out of the ordinary, but not all departments were hit as hard as English, and according to Science Department Chair Mitch Weathers, his department had little trouble filling positions this year. However, it remains to be seen how the teacher shortage will affect the school in years to come.

“This year has been the hardest,” Hoffman said. “There are fewer candidates at the same time that there are more positions and it’s become harder to find high-quality applicants to fill our positions.”