New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
School districts struggling with substitute-teacher shortage
Schools going remote and high school graduates filling in for seasoned teachers — some may say it’s not the ideal educational scenario, but it’s the one districts are facing.
With COVID-19 making many hesitant to step into a classroom,
Connecticut cities and towns are dealing with a substitute shortage that’s resulted in schools going remote from lack of available coverage and the state lowering their requirements to help bring instructors into the classroom.
Norwalk schools have closed numerous buildings this year due to lack of staffing amid COVID-related quarantines. At one point, the district had over a dozen schools on remote learning due to staffing shortages.
“The availability of substitute teachers has been a real challenge during COVID,” said Norwalk schools’ chief communications officer Brenda Wilcox Williams.
Stamford has faced similar challenges, to the point where staffing shortages played a role in the district’s decision to switch to full remote learning from Dec. 21 to Jan. 19.
According to Stamford schools’ public affairs officer Sharon Beadle, the district used an average of 1,145 substitute teacher fills monthly for the first three months of the school year. This is a 44 percent decrease from the year prior. In an attempt to attract more subs, Stamford announced in November it would increase pay from $95 to $105 a day with an additional $20 a day if they work 80 percent of the school days in a month.
The shortage is so dire that Gov. Ned Lamont made an executive order waiving the requirement that substitutes have bachelor’s degrees. With requirements waived, districts can hire temporary substitute teachers over the age of 18 who have a high school diploma and experience with school-age children. Those substitute teachers would be able serve up to 40 days in one assignment.
Danbury schools are taking advantage of the new executive order to work with Western Connecticut State University, which is arranging potential subs to receive field experiences required for teacher certification with approval from the state Department of Education, according to superintendent Sal Pascarella.
Danbury schools have been remote, so substitutes have not been as big an issue, but Pascarella said they have begun substitute recruitment in anticipation of their return to in-person learning in January.
Darien Public Schools Human Resources Director Marge Cion said they have only shut down two schools this year, but have spent about $160,000 on subs, similar to what was spent last year. Darien has also taken advantage of the governor’s executive order — of their 60 active substitutes, 10 are students home from college and 25 are community members who responded to social media posts from Board of Education members.
“Many of our usual substitutes decided not to work this year because of the fear of COVID,” Cion said. “We were able to add quite a few substitutes with the help of the Board of Education and community members. We have had appropriate coverage for most days this year. Based on the amount we have expended this year we appear to be using the same number of subs this year.”
Despite the shortage, Norwalk has also spent $317,000 on subs so far this year, which Board of Education Chair Colin Hosten said is slightly less on substitutes than they had last year at this time.
This trend is reflected in other districts. Litchfield schools said it’s spending $82,500 on substitutes, which includes those serving in the long term, and have no expectations to go over that budget.
Milford schools’ chief operations officer Jim Richitelli told the school board at its Nov. 25 meeting that the lack of available substitutes has meant that the city spent $178,000 less on subs than budgeted during October and into mid-November.
“That reflects the shortage of substitute teachers — not only in Milford but throughout the country,” he said.
Before Milford schools went full remote through Jan. 8, they were using about 10 subs per day but had budgeted for 24.
On the other end of the scale, West Haven schools added $500,000 to their substitutes budget from COVID relief funds. Through this, they doubled their substitute account and put the money toward hiring additional staff at some of the buildings, paying teachers more money for covering classes due to shortages and hiring permanent building substitutes. Still, shortages have led to at least three building closures during different points so far this year.
“Because of the number of staff we’re forced to quarantine, coverage has been and continues to be a challenge,” said West Haven Superintendent Neil Cavallaro.
The shortage is not anything new. “Even during a regular year we experience challenges in filling openings with substitute teachers, said Derby schools superintendent Matthew Conway.
Derby has spent $62,971 on subs as of Dec. 17, averaging about 11 subs a day.
New Haven schools are already beginning to look for substitutes for when the district returns to in-person classes, a move that Superintendent Iline Tracey said was “proactive.” But Dave Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said more needs to be done to motivate subs financially.
“If we would give the substitute teachers, in all districts throughout the state, a decent wage, we would have a larger pool of qualified candidates,” he said on Dec. 10. “A substitute teacher shortage has existed for years and years, and we simply do not address the fact that we are asking college-educated individuals to work for $75 a day.”
New Haven officials proposed increasing the per diem rate for substitute teachers this year to $95.