During the Sept. 25 meeting, district leaders told the Harrison School District 2 Board of Education that national immigration-policy and higher-education trends are contributing to a teacher-supply crisis, and the board learned it will receive an Urban Boards of Education excellence award in October.

The briefing is significant because district leaders linked shifts in federal immigration policy and university production of new teachers to local staffing shortages that could affect classroom stability.

A district speaker described recent changes affecting H‑1B visas and said those changes will increase costs and complications for hiring internationally trained teachers. ‘‘We used to pay 8,000 per teacher. It's not gonna be a 100,000 per teacher,’’ the speaker said; the transcript did not provide a policy citation or fuller context for those figures. The speaker added that the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) graduated only two education majors last year compared with historical cohorts of 40 to 60, calling it part of a broader decline in educator pipeline production.

The district speaker said the system ‘‘grows our own teachers’’ through paraprofessional-to-teacher pathways but warned that increasing barriers may reduce that pipeline and require different local approaches to staffing.

Separately, the board was told that Harrison School District 2 has been selected to receive the Urban Boards of Education Excellence Award (referred to in the meeting as an 'Urban Board' award) and that the district will celebrate the recognition in October. The speaker emphasized the board’s role in keeping politics out of the classroom while supporting teachers and administrators.

No board action was taken at the Sept. 25 meeting regarding staffing or immigration policy; the session included recognition of the award and a note that district leaders have been in contact with local media about staffing impacts. Board members did not vote on any immigration-policy position at the meeting.