Molly Broadwater, an Edgewood City Schools parent and candidate for school board, was outraged when she came home from work earlier this month to hear her third-grade son had spent his school day sitting on a gymnasium floor with his Chromebook.
His teacher and other Edgewood Intermediate School teachers were absent or quarantined that day, she says, and there weren't enough substitutes. Her son was told to "do what he wants," Broadwater says, which mostly meant playing games on his computer.
"I'm sending my kid to in-person school to get an education. I don't need a babysitter," the Butler County resident says. "That's not what he's there for. He's there to get an education. And if they're not doing that, then they are failing."
More: 'No time to do much else': Ohio school leaders overwhelmed by contact tracing needs
Because of the lack of substitute teachers, Edgewood Schools spokesperson Frank Russo says the district has hired "student supervisors" at the middle and high schools.
"Given the lack of substitutes, there are times that teachers will cover another teacher's class or 'double-up' a class to ensure our students are appropriately educated. In those cases, our students are given assignments to work on during class," he says. "We are proud of our staff for going above and beyond to continue to keep our schools open and educate our students in person."
In Northern Kentucky, Covington Independent Public Schools' director of human resources Ken Kippenbrock says they have not combined classes. But school administrators and other staff – principals, assistant principals, counselors and paraprofessionals – are filling in for absent or quarantined teachers on a daily basis. The district was only hitting about a 30% fill rate the last week of September, meaning two-thirds of absent teachers were being replaced by administrators rather than paid subs.
The same is true for bus drivers, Kippenbrock says, though that shortage has been weighing on school districts for years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Covington is short at least five transportation staff members, meaning they often have maintenance staff or other certified employees from various departments picking up bus routes.
"We have the transportation director driving, we have driver trainers that are having to take routes, our mechanic is trained as an emergency driver," Kippenbrock says. "So much like we're pulling principals and instructional coaches and counselors to teach, we're pulling these folks to (drive buses) on an emergency basis."
Between nationwide shortages of teachers, bus drivers and nurses – in addition to the hours of contact tracing some school districts are being asked to handle on their own – school administrators and office workers are having to juggle an abundance of tasks they’ve not necessarily been hired to perform. It’s overwhelming, most say. And in some cases, emergency shortages are leading to cut instruction time for students.
Bus driver shortage 'cannot be blamed on the pandemic'
The nationwide bus driver shortage, which became severe enough in Massachusetts that the National Guard was deployed to help, is not a new problem, says Jessica Dykes, director of public information and community engagement at Kenton County School District. Other states have also considered calling on the National Guard to drive school buses, and according to the Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has not ruled that option out.
“We need to understand directly from the schools exactly what the problem is and what their situation is in their school,” DeWine says. He encourages schools to contact his office if they are having busing problems.
Most of the large districts in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky struggling with school bus driver shortages have not yet had to cancel routes, though some have. Mostly it's just become a logistical nightmare, building for multiple years.
Kenton County schools, which serves about 14,500 students, offers full-day kindergarten and preschool, Dykes says, in addition to busing students to daily programs at Northern Kentucky University, Ignite Institute in Boone County and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College's Harrison airport campus.
"So we're driving kids everywhere, all day long," Dykes says. "We had a bus driver shortage before the pandemic. It cannot be blamed on the pandemic. This is old news."
Dykes says Kenton County bus drivers remained employed throughout the pandemic, too, transporting meals and homework to district families.
To be proactive, Dykes says the district has combined bus routes and the board of education purchased larger buses to transport more students on fewer routes. They have also raised the starting salary for bus drivers to $17.50 per hour, to be competitive with other area employers such as Amazon, UPS and FedEx. That pay can go up to $23 per hour with experience, she says.
At Springboro Schools, district communications coordinator Scott Marshall says the district had to cancel two bus routes so far this year. Administrators let families know that they would be responsible for transporting their kids to school on those days.
But even for districts that have not yet had to cancel routes, officials say that cancelations are a constant fear and real possibility. Many districts are just a couple of sick drivers away from having to call families, just as Springboro did.
"We have a total of 49 routes and we do have drivers for all of those routes," Middletown City Schools business manager Eric Sotzing says. "Our big issue right now is actually having enough substitutes. So if a driver's out for illness, including COVID, then that's a big issue."
Middletown has resorted to combining routes or rescheduling drivers in emergency situations, which makes ride times much longer for students, Sotzing says. In some cases, students have arrived to school late and missed instructional time due to the bus driver shortage.
How to help
School districts across the region are calling on community members to apply for open positions. In many cases, the work can be part-time, and officials say they can work with individuals on developing a schedule that works for them.
"We're constantly advertising," Dykes says. The district has invested in banners, brochures, marquee signs and online messages to recruit new bus drivers. Canceling routes is not an option. "We need transportation due to the landscape and size of our district, we're very large."
Other districts have increased pay to entice applicants. Middletown Schools are now offering $2,000 sign-on and referral bonuses for drivers, officials say. Covington Independent Schools increased substitute teacher pay from $135 to $200 per day.
Anyone looking to apply to be a substitute teacher or a bus driver can look on your local school district's website or call your district's human resources office.
“We need bus drivers. This is a big deal and this is hurting a lot of districts right now," Marshall says. “You’re the first face these kids see during the day and you’re the last face they see before they go home. So it can be a pretty impactful (role)."
Community members interested in applying for open roles can check out the following links:
Source link
