SALISBURY, Md.- There is a teacher crisis across the country that is affecting people on Delmarva.
Vince Pavic, director of human resources for Wicomico County Public Schools, said he was down seven teachers last school year.
"The more important piece is probably retaining and so I think our focus has been on trying to find ways to retain the staff that we do hire," Pavic said.
On average, Pavic said he has a turnover rate of about 100 teachers each school year.
He also said one of Wicomico County Public School's main resources for recruiting is Salisbury University.
"We've relied upon them for many years for a lot of teachers but we're just not seeing the number of teachers coming out," Pavic said.
Laurie Henry, the dean of Siedel School of Education at SU, gave WBOC data that reflected the decline of enrolling education students.
In fall of 2013, the school had 1,113 students. By the fall of 2017, enrollment had dropped to 863 students, which follows a national trend.
Henry also said many students who graduate from SU want to leave the area.
"When students come to an institution they typically graduate from that institution. They fall in love with that area and want to stay in that area," Henry said. "Often times we don't necessarily have a teacher shortage issue but a distribution problem so getting students who want to work in inner city schools to working in more rural communities sometimes becomes a challenge."
Pavic said Wicomico County Public Schools is counting on SU to find solutions.
"Hopefully Salisbury University is looking at that problem as well and hopefully they're trying to address it in creative ways," Pavic said.
However, in the meantime the demand for teachers is increasing but the teachers' pool is shrinking.