A shortage of teachers due to illness stands to affect school operations and compound the state’s existing teacher shortage.
By Yana Kunichoff & Megan Taro | Arizona Republic
Jules Ohrin-Greipp has been a substitute teacher since 2013. But last week, he decided not to take any school substitute offers.
COVID-19 is raging in Arizona and, as a substitute in an Arizona school district without a mask mandate, Ohrin-Greipp is worried for his health.
“I’m going to wait another week,” said Ohrin-Greipp, a school psychologist turned substitute teacher who has worked at Dysart Unified School District, where face coverings are recommended but not required. “I want to help the teachers recognize that they are not in this alone.”
Raquel Mamani, a substitute at the Madison School District, has been teaching these past two weeks, but she’s been doing so as a favor to another educator who needed two weeks off to get a long-delayed surgery.
“It’s a lot of chaos,” said Mamani, who has been subbing through the pandemic and described exhausted educators and students acting out from frustration and trauma.
Together, those viewpoints help explain the dire state of staffing in Arizona schools. Longtime substitutes, often used to fill staffing gaps amid the teacher shortage, are reluctant to return to school amid the latest surge.
A shortage of teachers due to illness stands to affect school operations and compound the state’s existing teacher shortage.
With cases rising among teachers and staff, districts are creating emergency shortage plans to fill gaps.
