NATCHEZ — After starting off the summer with more than 60 vacant positions, the Natchez-Adams School District has closed the gap to 21.

Interim Superintendent Fred Butcher said the district needs four English teachers, two math teachers, two biology teachers, a chemistry teacher, two physical education teachers and the remainder of needed staff are at the elementary level, including fifth grade science and math.

“I’m concerned about science and math,” Butcher said. “Every school around the country needs science and math teachers because we are competing with industry, and they pay a whole lot better.”

Butcher said alternative methods for education might have to be looked into for science and math courses, such as having certified teachers offer Skype lessons to a second classroom or even online options.

“The ideal situation is to have certified teachers in each classroom, but sometimes you have to make adjustments,” Butcher said. “I feel like in high level math and science courses, students benefit from having a teacher present.

“With Skype classes, students can still get immediate feedback from teachers by asking questions.”

Butcher said the majority of the 40 hires have been certified teachers, but in some cases they have had to hire teachers who have the coursework but who have not yet taken or passed the certification tests.

“I think what it boils down to is our academic coaches, our principals and our mentors will spend a lot of time working with our non-certified teachers, coaching them up,” he said. “We can’t make excuses — we still have to take ownership of the success of all of our children and can’t hide behind some of our teachers not being certified.”

From here, Butcher said it’s going to be tough to make any hires, though the district will still attempt to work with Teach for America and look back over applications to see if there is anyone who could fit in the slot. The district also has some interviews still scheduled and Butcher said he hopes that will result in bringing the number of hires needed down into the high teens.

The alternative for some positions could come down to bringing in long-term substitute teachers, Butcher said.

“At this point, most teachers are already in place for the upcoming year,” he said.

Butcher said he credited his principals for their hard work in filling this gap of more than one-third of the district’s total instructional staff that NASD began the summer with.

“They have worked tirelessly to get certified teachers, good teachers,” he said.

Frazier Elementary School is the school with the largest need with seven unfilled positions, while McLaurin Elementary School, Robert Lewis Magnet School, Natchez Early College Academy and the Fallin Center are all fully staffed. Natchez High School only lacks a chemistry teacher.

Butcher said all lead administrators are in place, and for most of the schools, the principals will be leading in their second consecutive year.

“All of our administrators have served in the district before,” he said.

The district also had help in cutting five teacher positions by merging the Morgantown Leadership and Early College academies.