With school starting up again, there has been a very pressing issue dealing with substitute shortages, which are creating some chaos and distractions to schools nationwide.

The main cause for this shortage entails a bunch of factors. Unemployment benefits have been robust and that could have potentially kept some people out of the substitute community. Also, being a sub can sometimes be quite challenging and creates a lot of work which can lead to a lack of interest and attentiveness. To worsen the problem, there is the looming factor of the pandemic and some people are not comfortable  putting themselves at risk and exposing themselves to different school areas and environments. 

Subs are second or third year community members and they get a different salary portion. It’s noted that this position is not the highest paid. With both internal and external factors, there are many various things to take into consideration. There can be a teacher doing training, people are sick or dealing with other family members, or just that too many teachers are out for a period of time. Looking into the future, the action being taken and to furthermore grasp this problem is campaigning and word of mouth. Principal Dr. Dan Ostermann of Casa Grande shared his knowledge and ideas on this topic. 

“Word of mouth and $200 dollars a day, more pay equals promotion. There has been a turning corner and we started seeing more regulars,” said Ostermann.

 He explained how things have already been looking up and getting better but this issue has existed from the beginning of the school year on Aug. 17. As for the long term, this incoming factor of pay plays an important role. 

“The pay can help a lot. Extra dollars coming down from the federal government with a good sub pay that is fair and continuing to recruit with more younger people,” said Ostermann.

This concurring problem also comes with fluctuations and adjustments. This disrupts the learning process for students and creates some chaos in the classroom as well as engaging the learning portion. It creates an uneven balance of the overall stability of the school which plays into elements of the school subjects. It reveals an uneven balance of the overall stability of the school. When there is no sub, there is a turning to teachers on the Casa Grande campus during “prep period.” The prep period is the teacher’s time to create lesson plans. The teachers teach five out of the six classes each day. Sometimes they have to fill in. The teachers still get paid but that comes with a challenge and is very exhausting, where you don’t want to wear out the teachers as well. With this, there is more work being done through advertisements, communication, and job fairs to hopefully help resolve this issue.