Last year, the Natchez-Adams School District seemed to be in dire straits with holes all throughout its employee chart.

The district’s leadership seems to have done a great job in turning the tide this year. That’s no small feat either.

Last week the district had only 30 positions unfilled, 24 of those for certified teachers.

A year ago, those numbers were doubled with 60 openings unfilled with just two months left before the last school year started.

Clearly, the hard work that the Natchez-Adams leadership has put into recruiting and retaining efforts is paying off.

We applaud Natchez-Adams Superintendent Fred Butcher and his team for the vast improvement year over year.

Unfortunately, the problem they face is not going to go away easily.

The serious problem of finding good teachers is not unique to the Natchez-Adams School District. The problem of recruiting and retaining excellent teachers is becoming more and more difficult all over Mississippi.

One cannot help but think the problem is exacerbated by two things — our state’s government’s almost annual undercutting of the value of education at budget time and the public perception that teaching is a “fall back” profession.

The people who are helping to shape the young minds of our youth should be put on public pedestals rather than mocked.

If you’re reading this, it’s quite likely that you owe that to a teacher. As perceptions hopefully change, we continue to applaud the efforts of the Natchez-Adams district in improving their staff, which in turn should improve our community’s future.