WILLAMETTE VALLEY, Ore. -- It's all hands-on deck as many schools throughout the Willamette Valley are experiencing a lack of substitute teachers. Within the last month, school officials said it's become increasingly worse.
Eugene Education Association president Sabrina Gordon said that many teachers are out sick or are simply out for other reasons. This means that there are too many gaps and not enough substitutes to fill them.
"We have more absences than available substitute teachers, which means many schools are experiencing unfilled absences where there is not a teacher available for students," Gordon said.
Gordon said staff members like school counselors, special education teachers, and even principals have to team up to cover for the shortage.
"Those who don't have their own classroom necessarily, but they are working with students all day, and when they are pulled, students don't get those services," Gordon said.
Gordon predicts the shortage will last until the end of this school year but is confident schools will recover heading into the fall.
"I think this is something that we are going to continue to face. Some of the ways to make it better would be making sure we are compensating substitute teachers well enough that they want to do this job," Gordon said.
Michelle Steinhebel, the Greater Albany Public Schools spokesperson, said they're getting aggressive and more creative to bring in more substitute teachers. They gave out bonuses to help reel more people in.
"From January to spring break, we did an appreciation stipend for substitutes with our district. So, if you subbed with us 10 times, you had a $250 stipend; if you did 30, you got 600 bucks," Steinhebel said.
While she says this did attract some people, it's not enough.
"Anyone with an educational background, whether that's a teacher on special assignment, behavioral specialist, who has that educational background; we are pulling them from our other district areas to make sure our classrooms are covered," Steinhebel said.
She said no classes have been canceled by the shortage and don't anticipate that happening as many people are stepping in to help out.
This is exactly what Kristen Gianforti, a counselor at Awbrey Park Elementary School, is doing.
"Every day, my first question when I walk into the door is, 'who all is out, and who do we not have subs for?'" Gianforti said.
She said it's all hands on deck right now as they work to fill in the gaps.
"Oftentimes, we are tag-teaming it. I might cover for a little bit of time, and then my counselor might cover for a little bit of time, then our principal," Gianforti said.
She said many teachers are out with COVID and other sicknesses, and some are out on stored up paid time off.
School officials will use the months off to aggressively recruit in hopes that this problem doesn't show up when school is back in session in the fall.
