by Sheila Esposito

Recently, Linda Barratta (President of MECA) and I met to share joint concerns regarding the extremely serious situation that exists in this district regarding the lack of substitute teachers. No building has been left untouched by the routine occurance of numerous unfilled positions. The ramifications from continually unfilled positions is quite obvious: students suffer, teachers are constantly being asked to cover classes, and clerical staff members are consistently burdened with the untenable task of trying to fill positions — often with last minute notification. Clearly, the negative effects on school climate and school safety are more than obvious.

Linda and I have agreed on a multi-pronged approach to addressing joint MTA and MECA concerns imbedded in the sub shortage crisis.  The District must be held responsible for the decisions it makes and the subsequent fall-out on students and staff. We need to know accurate data regarding the number of daily unfilled positions, we need to know the total number of available substitutes (with a breakdown of the number available to work at each level), and we need to know that Sub Finder will not only work correctly, but be updated to reflect an accurate substitute roster. Additionally, we need to know that the District will initiate a serious review of the outrageous number of professional development sessions (and the corresponding hours) that teachers are pulled out of their classrooms.

On behalf of her clerical colleagues, Linda asked if I would remind our members about a few things that are helpful when we are going to be out:

• Leave Sub Plans and Class Rosters in a location that is easy to find (please make sure someone else knows where you leave these items).
• Provide a class description with pertinent information that is helpful to subs but without revealing confidential information.
• Consider having a back-up plan for your plans (leave a set of generic lessons and inform someone of where they may always be found, or arrange to e-mail plans to one or two others in case you’re going to be out unexpectedly).

The MTA recognizes that in our respective building it is the clerical staff continually pressed into action to fill the gaps when subs are not available. It is a deplorable situation and it creates undue pressure on everyone. However, no MTA member should feel obligated to cover a class and give up personal planning time. Ultimately, the ownership for this mess rests with the District and it is the responsibility of the District to fix it.

Here’s another point to ponder — how much do parents know?  Are they aware of how much time their children spend with substitute teachers or how many times they are in classes where stop-gap measures need to be employed to provide coverage for classes?