Unlike a shorthanded restaurant, Utah schools 'can’t close up shop to only serve dinner.' They’re asking business to share their employees as substitute teachers.
Staffing shortages powered by the omicron variant of COVID-19 have left Utah schools scrambling for substitute teachers. A new partnership between the Salt Lake Chamber and the Salt Lake City and Granite school districts encourages employers to free up their staff to work as substitutes.Remember ditching class? Now the Salt Lake Chamber wants you to ditch your job duties instead and go back.
In the Salt Lake City School District, from the beginning of the school year to winter break, 65% to 75% of teacher requests for a substitute were filled, according to Logan Hall, its director of Human Resources. Alpine School District also can’t find enough subs, especially in elementary schools, Superintendent Shane Farnsworth said in an emergency school board meeting Thursday. Fill rates in junior highs and high schools are above 80%, but the rate at elementary schools in the district are below 50%.One secondary school in Alpine recently resorted to putting all of its kids in a gymnasium and playing movies.
More than 50 businesses attended a webinar earlier this month where Hall and others outlined the districts’ need for help, and more have been invited to participate through the Chamber’s newsletter. And adults will be shown a new perspective on how difficult it is to be a teacher, Miller said. “You can’t fade out or start daydreaming. If you did, you’d end up in chaos,” Miller said. “... To actually get it in the classroom, provides a whole new level of respect.”
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