COLUMBUS, Ohio — Already struggling to maintain staffing levels due to the pandemic, Columbus City Schools is now facing another obstacle: cold weather.
When the district canceled classes for Wednesday, officials cited the ongoing transportation shortage as well as forecasted frigid temperatures as reasoning.
Columbus City Schools is one of many districts nationwide dealing with staffing shortages.
“There’s just not enough school bus drivers,” said Lori Carson, who serves as state president for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.
According to a spokesperson for CCS, 109 bus drivers called off ahead of Wednesday. Carson says that number isn’t out of the ordinary.
She added what makes Columbus different from other neighboring districts is its size.
There are more than 500 bus routes in the district. It also has more children who must walk more than two miles to the bus stop. Students sometimes have to walk even more to get to school because their parents don’t have transportation to drive them.
CCS is also responsible to bus kids who are members of charter schools and non-public schools.
The district ultimately canceled classes Wednesday to avoid having students spend an extended period of time in single-digit temperatures, Carson said.
But the issues don’t stop at busing.
Heat is also an issue at some schools.
From Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, Valley Forget Elementary School used remote learning to allow time for repairs on its heating system.
The spokesperson said the district added temporary heating units to vent heat into the building. The alternative method has been used at other building sites in the past.
There are also issues with the lack of substitute teachers. The spokesperson was unsure how many teachers called off on Wednesday.
The Columbus Education Association, the union that represents teachers, says the district has 641 substitutes.
The union told 10TV, from Jan. 3 to Jan. 24, there were 7,100 instructional staff absences. That does not translate to more than 7,000 people that were absent on a given day.
According to CEA, of the 7,100, about 2,201 did not request a substitute. Officials say, of the 7,100, the district was able to fill 2,462 positions with substitutes during that period.
Filling substitute positions is called the “fill rate."
In December 2015, the fill rate was 81.3%. In December 2019, it was 56.4%
On Tuesday, the union says that 49% of the absences were filled with substitutes.