Wanted at Corridor schools: More substitute teachers

IOWA CITY - These days, it's not difficult to find a classroom in the Corridor in need of a teacher, 24-year-old Samantha McAtee says.

She's spent four to five days a week substitute teaching since graduating with an education degree from the University of Iowa in December.

'Every school I've been to, they've been really grateful that we're there to sub,” McAtee said. 'They just need that extra help. ... It's almost like they're nervous about finding a sub.”

Data from seven school districts in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area shows more than 1,700 teacher absences went unfilled from August to December of last year - leaving many classrooms without a designated instructor or resulting in the need to pull other staff members away from their normal duties.

Education experts say that shortage stretches across the state.

'We know anecdotally that the substitute shortage is statewide and will increase as the numbers of people going into the profession decreases,” said Jean Hessburg, a spokeswoman for the Iowa State Education Association.

Hessburg noted it is difficult to quantify the number of active substitute teachers, and a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education said it does not track the number of substitute teachers in the state.

Any retired or unemployed teacher could be eligible to teach, Hessburg said, and people with a substitute teaching license or substitute authorization are also eligible, though it's difficult to know how many are active.

Districts in the Corridor typically see a boost in available substitutes this time of year as December college graduates enter the workforce, said Jane Fry, the assistant superintendent of human resources for the Iowa City Community School District.

In Iowa City, about 15 percent of teacher absences have been unfilled this school year.

'We would like to have more subs, bottom line,” Fry said. 'And that's not inconsistent with what's going on across the state.”

She said the Iowa City school district is exploring how to create more opportunities for college graduates to earn a substitute authorization.

That authorization - which was approved by the Iowa Board of Examiners to address the shortage - allows anyone older than 21 with a bachelor's degree and a clean criminal record to substitute teach after completing an authorization course. Those are offered by both school districts and area educational agencies.

An increase in subs could have helped with the 210 unfilled teacher absences in the Iowa City district reported from August to December of last year. About 1,420 total absences requiring a substitute were reported.

In the Cedar Rapids Community School District, where 7,568 absences were reported, 934 of them were left vacant.

At Grant Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Principal Monica Frey went into the school year expecting to see days where classrooms had no teacher. She and four other staff members who don't have their own classrooms agreed to cover absences on a rotating basis.

It was Frey's turn to cover a classroom last week, and she said she's already on deck to fill in again Tuesday because of a string of staff sick days.

Some schools in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, including Grant, have part-time substitute teachers in the building who fill in regularly for absent teachers. The Iowa City district has adopted that practice as well.

Still, Frey said she is often taken away from her duties as principal - like returning calls from parents and planning lessons with staff - to teach.

'Sometimes it's almost all (five) of us in a classroom on a particular day if we have a very high substitute teacher shortage,” Frey said. 'It does impact my day, it does make things difficult.”

With more absences than people to fill them, Frey said she tries to build a relationship with every substitute who works at her school in hopes they'll come back.

'I try to make them feel very welcome and very valued,” she said. 'I think it is difficult for some substitute teachers - they come into a building, and they may be here for just a day, so they don't have that relationship with the building.”

Without an increase in the number of active substitute teachers though, nabbing those substitutes is only a temporary fix.

'It's not like it's one particular school vs. another school,” she said. 'All schools are having difficulty with it.”

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