District staff to start subbing... sort of... (draft)

 You know I wish I didn't have to write pieces like this, ones where I point out how little the district cares about its staff, and this time they are showing it by doing as little as possible to avert the subbing crisis or lack of sub crisis if you will, that is going on in the district. To help out, district staff for two days only will be subbing in our schools, then it's back to good luck getting a sub. 

Next week, district staff with at least sixty credit hours and who don't have meetings may be placed in our schools to the sub. I am not sure if they are doing this willingly or being voluntold. When I asked the district this is what they told me.

To answer your question regarding “the district planning on having staff with more than 60 credit hours start subbing,” we anticipated a need for additional subs during the Thanksgiving Holiday week. One of the ways we are planning to meet that need is by using district administrative personnel. Many have extensive teaching experience, and all meet the requirements of performing as a substitute teacher.  

 

This is not the first time we have used district staff to cover classrooms. You may recall that we used this option last year so teachers could attend the “Rally in Tally.”  This is a voluntary option for staff members, and they are not receiving any additional compensation.  

To be honest, I don't remember district staff subbing last January, but if they did, awesome. That being said, what about all the unfilled positions this week, or the ones after Thanksgiving? Is it too bad, so sad?

I get it district staff has jobs, I mean other than those looking for our learning arcs, so it would be unsustainable to get them in the classrooms on a full-time basis, but something other than denying there is a problem has to be done.

They could hire staff to subs, Vitti did it, we had two years of each school having a full-time sub, and let's pay for it with CARES money. Detroit, which is now completely virtual, is half our size got twice as much money.

If not, how about making subbing worthwhile instead of insulting, pay teachers 40 or sixty bucks instead of the cringeworthy18. Or give them however long they sub in extra PTO, you know, so they won't have to make up the planning time they missed at home. 

Let's lighten loads by postponing learning arcs and standard-based bulletin boards, and let's cancel common planning. If it's important, send the PowerPoint to me in an email instead of forcing me to watch it when I have a couple dozen other things going on.

There are solutions beyond making teachers miserable and overwhelming them.

The district needs to come up with them.

I hate writing pieces pointing out the district doesn't care, but sadly that's all I seem to be writing these days.