NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District has worked its annual summer vacancies list to the point at which the district only needs to fill nine positions.

The district’s recruiting effort is continuing into the new school year, Interim Superintendent Fred Butcher said.

Trustee Cynthia Smith thanked the administration and principals Thursday for working to get the number of vacancies down to single digits. The district began the summer needing to hire 60 teachers and ended July needing to fill 13 positions.

The district has had to hire more than 15 permanent substitutes to get to this staffing level. Butcher said the permanent substitutes have college degrees, but they do not have teacher certification.

“And we continue to recruit,” said Board of Trustees President Amos James Jr. “I’ve heard people saying the permanent subs are doing great.”

Butcher said he too had been hearing good things about the permanent substitutes, but work was still being done to ensure their success.

“We still want to have a safety net put in place,” he said. “(Central office staff) will work with them two to three times a month, and the academic coaches are working with them on a daily basis.”

Permanent substitutes have also been assigned mentors amongst the teaching staff, and principals will be required to spend more time in their classes to make sure the curriculum is being taught.

During the first week of school, which started Aug. 8, Butcher said the central office administration visited the schools in teams to evaluate the performance.

“We are out in the district right now to do a check and balance of where the new teachers are, and where the principals are,” he said. “We are looking at our organization, to see each school in comparison to the district expectations.

“We want to see what support our first-year employees need, our permanent substitutes need and just what employees in general need.”

During the first week of school, Butcher said the district had 3,311 students. Compared to this time last year, the district has 70 more students.

The district ended the 2015-16 school year with 3,551 students.