Nashua School District students will return to their classroom in less than two weeks. How many of them will not have permanent teachers to lead their studies by Aug. 28 remains to be seen.

This week, the district’s website listed more than 70 vacant teaching positions, with the majority of these at the elementary school level.

Human Resources Director Dana O’Gara told our reporter she expects most of the positions will be filled by the start of school Aug. 28. A substitute will be put in any classroom that does not have a teacher. Wherever possible, the intended candidate will be put in as the substitute until they can be approved.

“We try to do that because it’s best of the children to have that continuity,” she said, adding, “There will be teachers in the classroom.”

While we respect the role of substitute teachers, students and parents deserve to have full-time, permanent teachers in place as soon as possible. The last thing students in the competitive academic environment of 2018 need is to lose valuable classroom time that should feature a full-time teacher.

School officials said teacher recommendations must be approved by the board of education. As we have reported, recent board of education meetings in Nashua have, at times, been out of order.

We again call on board members Dotty Oden, along with board members Howard Coffman, Gloria Timmons Raymond Guarino, Doris Hohensee, William Mosher, Susan Porter, Heather Raymond and Elizabeth Van Twuyver to put aside their differences in the effort to ensure as many students as possible have full-time teachers for the first day of class.

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