No one who has paid any attention to the Natchez-Adams School District over the past year should be surprised by the district’s employee problem.

With just over a month before a new school year starts in mid-August, the NASD is still searching for approximately 43 teachers to fill vacant positions on the district’s roster.

By comparison, the Concordia Parish School District is currently looking to fill only three teacher openings.

The turmoil surrounding the Natchez-Adams District over the past few years certainly makes filling those posts more difficult than is necessary.

Poor test scores a couple of years ago that put the district on the brink of state takeover led the district’s officials to take drastic measures in an effort to reset the stopwatch on state takeover.

Schools were reworked, breaking up some into separate academies. Administrators were flipped, flopped and fired in some cases that have resulted in several lawsuits in which former employees allege discrimination.

The NASD appears to have been in a state of turmoil over the past few years, and all signs are that it’s worsening. Earlier this summer, Adams County supervisors sought the resignation of one of their school board appointees, who refused. Days later the same school board appointee broke a tie vote to extend the superintendent’s contract.

We all learned just days later that the superintendent recently had been in the final running for the superintendent’s position at a district in Michigan.

Clearly, few want to join the crew of a ship when the water and winds are turbulent. Even fewer likely want to step aboard when the crew learns the captain is looking to jump ship himself.

Add in that the crew isn’t allowed to speak freely to the public and all information comes through the “official” spokesperson, and it’s a recipe for lots of employee vacancies.

In the end, sadly, it’s the students who will get shortchanged in all the turmoil and teacher vacancies.