Some teachers are reluctant to return to classroom settings as Orange County students resume at least some in-person learning.
So substitute teachers might be in demand more than ever before. Will enough be available? And later if an outbreak of the virus were to hit a district?
Several school districts are taking action to assure there will be, including raising the daily rates they offer and hiring more substitutes from the outset.
Though it had only a small number of teachers who decided to not return to classrooms, the Capistrano Unified School District, Orange County’s largest with 54,000 students, this school year raised its daily pay for substitute teachers to $175 from $125.
“This is a challenge throughout our county,” Capistrano Unified spokesman Ryan Burris said of attracting enough subs, “and I’m sure the state.”
The Los Alamitos Unified School District this school year also raised its daily pay for substitutes: from $100 to $145.
But substitutes can have the same concerns as teachers about coronavirus transmission. Tustin Unified School District leaders estimate its available pool has lost 15 to 20 substitute teachers because of their concerns about risks to their health or the health of family members.
And there are still more districts that are just now planning a return of in-person learning.
“The demand on the substitute pool as other districts reopen is a real concern,” Tustin Unified Chief Personnel Officer Chuck Lewis said via email.
Saddleback Valley Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Connie Cavanaugh said the district is working to make sure a shortage isn’t an issue.
“But we have had a lot of difficulty securing substitutes on a daily basis,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re trying to hire new substitutes right now and we’re hiring them as quickly as they apply.”
Ocean View School District, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district, is taking the same proactive approach. While the outlook on its roster of substitutes appears good now, “we could always use more substitutes,” Superintendent Dr. Carol Hansen said.
“We haven’t had any staff go out (because of COVID-19 concerns), but we’re being proactive,” she said.
Because many of the district’s 14 schools have unique physical configurations in terms of the layouts of hallways, classrooms and other structures, it is assigning specific substitute teachers to specific schools.
“We’ve trained them for the protocols in their schools, because the protocols are different at every school,” Lee said. “The movement patterns (like building entrance and exit procedures) are different at every school.”
Orange Unified School District spokeswoman Hana Brake said the district does has openings for custodians, security personnel and other on-campus positions it is trying to fill.
“The need for substitute teachers so far is about the same as last year,” Brake said, just as the district began phasing in the return of its high school students who are rotating between online and in-person learning.
As more students return to in-person learning, the county’s school districts will learn if their supply of substitute teachers equals the need.