Substitute teacher issue remains as Columbia Public Schools returns to in-person classes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Public Schools needs more substitute teachers as it prepares to put students at all grade levels into classrooms Tuesday for the first time since last spring.
Elementary students were back in classrooms briefly last fall before rising coronavirus case rates and staff infections and exposures led them back online.
Middle and high school students have not been in the classroom since last spring, when the coronavirus pandemic started.
CPS spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark said the pool for substitute teachers is large but that number is deceptive.
"The issue is that of those substitutes that are in the pool, which is hundreds, we have a very limited number that says they would be willing to substitute during a pandemic," Baumstark said. "Of those who have said they are willing, even fewer have been accepting open positions."
CPS is resuming classes as the state begins the next phase of its coronavirus vaccination program. The program has four phases, and Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday that more than 190,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered.
Staff members who are part of the state's Phase 1A group have begun to receive their Covid-19 vaccinations, including school nurses or staff dealing directly with medically fragile children.
The rest of the teaching staff falls in Phase 1B. It isn't clear at this time when CPS teaching staff might get vaccine access.
Kathy Steinhoff, Hickman high school math teacher, says staffing issues will be the biggest problem for them as they return in person for the first time this school year.
"As soon as we start to see teachers have to quarantine, we start having problems," said Steinhoff.
Ariel Schwarting, a Grant Elementary third grade teacher, said her school plans to use University of Missouri student-teachers when possible. The student teachers will be allowed in CPS schools Jan. 25.
"They'll know our classrooms, they'll know our students," Schwarting said. "That will be helpful for the kids because it is not an outside person coming in and they can still have that meaningful learning happening with those MU students."
Schwarting said substitute shortages are always a problem -- especially so during a pandemic.
Baumstark said Tuesday will be treated as a "first day" for students, especially at the middle and high school levels.
"Our kids are going to have great first days back," Baumstark said. "We are going to be looking at social-emotional pieces of that, looking at teaching them the routine just like we do at the beginning of every school year."
Steinhoff says that this will be a first day feeling for many reasons at the high school level. She also said each teacher is taking different steps in their classrooms to ensure students will be following safety guidelines.
More than 400 CPS students have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and nearly 1,800 have been quarantined, according to district figures posted online. More than 200 staff members have tested positive and nearly 600 have quarantined because of exposure to the virus.
