Occupying positions is a headache for schools as hiring and retaining substitute teachers, school nurses, custodians, and bus drivers do remain a problem for Long Island schools, educators said, that is even with districts that do seeing fewer staff absences as the winter uptick of COVID-19 recedes.
Occupying Positions Expose Lack Overall
However, some districts are really struggling daily to find substitute teachers. In fact, students are sitting through longer bus rides as the routes are combining. Plus, the nurses are caring for two buildings instead of just their own.
“Really it is a scramble every morning,” said Jill Gierasch. She is the superintendent of the Cold Spring Harbor school district.
Plus, the educators do point to many factors driving the scarcity of personnel: a rushing wave of early retirements, low pay, employee burnout, virus concerns, and also the availability of better-paying options.
Thus to attract new workers, while districts are increasing pay and thus stepping up their recruitment efforts.
Lesson-Planning and Grading Papers
In fact, Gierasch said her staff comes in daily and reviews which positions do need filling. For instance, when the district can’t find enough substitute teachers, teachers are then asking to fill in during periods they would otherwise use for lesson-planning and grading papers.
Moreover, the district is also short on clerical staff, then a transportation coordinator is going to fill in answering phones or filing paperwork, Gierasch said.
Kishore Kuncham, Freeport Superintendent said the staff absences are then going to dramatically down from the beginning of January. That is when the problem was so stringent that the district did turn to remote learning for a week. Also, the districts at the time had to deal with quickly spreading infections from the Omicron Variant.
“In fact, things are better every day. Actually, there are fewer and fewer people out,” Kuncham said, really adding that certain staffing challenges remain. “However, it is really not enough. Moreover, we actually continuously seek people for jobs.”
Also, finding substitute teachers is among the largest struggles. In general, substitute teaching is a pretty much a low-paying, intermittent job without benefits. Then subs did often find out where and what they are teaching the morning they are called.
