Bridgeport schools' superintendent visited one of the city's public high schools Friday to announce the district had finally found a new full-time geometry teacher, despite a statewide shortage of qualified personnel.

At Harding High School, ninth- and 10th-grade students sent letters to district superintendent Fran Rabinowitz in September about the issue.

Rabinowitz says she visited the school and realized that a long-term substitute teacher who had been teaching geometry did not have an adequate background to teach math in accordance with regular standards.

She says that after reaching that conclusion, she sought to hire a full-time teacher, but found that there's a shortage of certified math teachers not only in Bridgeport, but throughout the state.

Ultimately, Rabinowitz says the district did hire a full-time geometry teacher at Harding. The new teacher started working Friday.

She says there's also the additional challenge of retaining teachers who sometimes leave in the middle of the school year for higher paying positions.