Private school employment is at an all-time high in the Spokane area.

“It accelerated coming out of the pandemic,” says Doug Tweedy, a regional economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department.

In 2019, the Spokane Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Spokane, Ferry, and Pend Oreille counties, had between 5,500 and 6,000 private school employees, Tweedy says. That figure is up to about 8,000 early this year.

The increase is unusually high and could be partly the result of more private schools in the area, Tweedy says.

“We’re seeing existing schools increase their employment, but there have been new schools entering the market,” he says.

The increase hasn’t been nearly as substantial at public schools in the area, Tweedy adds.

As for existing private schools, the increase appears to be widespread, as some Inland Northwest institutions report minimal or no increases over the past five years.

“Our employee count has been pretty flat,” says Ray Kliewer, vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer at Gonzaga University.

GU’s employee count, which includes full-time and part-time teaching and nonteaching positions, has risen by 3%—1,319 to 1,358—from 2019 to 2024, according to the Journal’s lists of Spokane-area colleges and universities.

Whitworth University, Spokane’s second largest private school at the university level, has actually had a decrease in employees during the same time period. In 2019, Whitworth had 681 total employees, compared with a 2024 count of 660.

At the K-12 level, Saint George’s School, of Spokane, has had a single-digit increase in employees over the past several years, says director of communications John Carter.

“Our employment has been quite stable,” Carter says.

Saint George’s currently has about 75 employees, he adds.

Gonzaga Preparatory School, a private high school in Spokane, has had a roughly 10% increase in employees since before the pandemic, Derek Duchesne, the school’s principal estimates.

“Our adult-to-student ratio has increased over the last few years,” Duchesne says.

Gonzaga Prep currently has just over 100 employees.

The increase in employees at Gonzaga Prep is due to the school taking a new approach in how it serves its students, Duchesne says.

“The primary reason for (the increase) is that we’re really looking at investing in meeting the needs of today’s students,” he says. “What we’re called to do in serving today’s students is so much more than it was in the past.”

Enrollment has remained steady at the high school in recent years, but the needs of students changed or were magnified during and after the pandemic, Duchesne explains.

Gonzaga Prep has added more information technology department employees, school counselors, learning specialists, college process counselors, and employees of other programs designed to meet students’ needs, he says.

“We’re seeing with something like COVID what greater importance there was in serving the socio-emotional needs of students through an experience like that,” he says. “We’re doing a much better job of identifying the needs of students than we ever had.”

Duchesne says the focus on students at his school has shifted from an academic approach to a more holistic approach.

“It’s allowed us to better serve our students on a day-to-day basis,” Duchesne says. “The overall student experience has gotten much better now that we’ve had people in these positions.”

Duchesne says that the trend of private schools adding employees at a higher rate than normal may be reaching a plateau.

“I think schools have recognized a lot of needs and have started filling those needs,” he says.

While GU’s employment has been relatively flat amid Spokane’s industrywide increase in employees, changes have been made recently, particularly at the nonfaculty level, says Kliewer.

“We’ve repositioned some roles to focus more on student services, particularly some focus on student mental health services,” Kliewer says. “I think coming out of the pandemic, there’s been a higher demand from students for services.”

Similar to Gonzaga Prep, GU placed more emphasis on serving its students with a holistic approach.

“Part of our ethos as an institution is to really look at the whole person and help develop the whole person,” Kliewer says. “It’s a natural progression for us to look at those services that develop the whole person.”

Although prominent schools like GU and Whitworth haven’t experienced much employee growth in recent years, the overall increase for private schools in the area is positive for the region, Tweedy says.

“Any growth of jobs in the economy is good,” Tweedy says. “Education is one of the foundation industries for our economy.”

The rate at which the area’s population is growing is also a factor when it comes to increases in employment, Tweedy adds.

“Spokane is kind of a hub for employment right now,” he says. “We have a lot of people moving in for jobs, not just in education, but across the economy."