At the academy, just like any other school, it’s inevitable that there will be some days when teachers get sick or have urgent matters to attend to. On days like these, substitute teachers typically take the place of teachers who are dealing with sickness or need personal days, but recently, Westminster has been facing difficulty finding people to fill these roles.
According to Rebecca Ligget, Westminster’s substitute teacher coordinator, finding substitute teachers became a more prominent issue in recent years.
“I think Covid did a number on schools, teachers, and substitute teachers. We are on a learning curve and may have to get creative with our approach to finding subs and filling jobs.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the job market throughout various industries, and the teacher market is no exception. However, Westminster has been fortunate enough to have a large network of parents and alumni who have been willing to step up to the plate and fill in sub jobs during the pandemic. So if the pandemic isn’t the problem, what is?
Mrs. Snyder, a former sub for Westminster who recently transitioned to the role of a Middle School paraprofessional, offered her reasoning as to why she decided to stop filling substitute teacher jobs: “The hard part of it was that it was inconsistent. I didn’t always know what to expect, so sometimes I didn’t know until the night before or the morning of, sometimes I had like 10 minutes to get ready and rush here and try to get prepared for a day of classes.”
When prompted further about the issue of the substitute shortage, Mrs. Ligget brought up this issue as well, “With all of our eager subs already assigned to jobs, it makes it very difficult to fill the last min absence requests with some of the other substitute teachers who like to sub more here and there. Not many are prepared to take on a full day of work and commitment when notified sometimes minutes before needing to show for the job.”
The Academy’s difficulties in finding substitute teachers to fill these last minute sub jobs are likely why teachers have been having to fill in during their off periods. Even the most eager and passionate of substitute teachers simply do not want to take a job mere minutes before the school day starts due to the inconvenience it entails.
Many other school districts such as Clayton and Francis Howl have begun to hire full time substitute teachers due to the shortage of short notice substitute teachers they are experiencing as well. Perhaps if Westminster were to transition some of their more experienced subs to full time substitute roles at the Academy, they would be able to quickly fill last minute requests as well as long term jobs quickly as the teachers would be contracted to the school on a long term basis.
An issue like the difficulty Westminster is facing in trying to find people to cover for sick and busy teachers is never an easy one to face, and in light of this issue it’s important to remember how crucial the role is that our teachers play in the Westminster community.
