LM Feb 2023

Q U E S T I O N S

& A N S W E R S Q

Click here to listen to the podcast. The following is a condensed and edited version of that conversation.

Q How severe is the substitute shortage in your district? Like many districts in our area, it’s been very challenging. What has really heightened the intensity for us is that we had six positions that we were not able to fill with licensed people to start the school year. That forced us to take the next step, which was to hire long term substitute teachers. What happens is whenever you already have a short pool, and then you move your best subs into the classroom full time, you’ve got even fewer people in your sub pool. It just compounded on us. So we knew we had to do something and came together right before Christmas Break and tried to figure out how to address this. Our people are just hurting and exhausted. One of our school board members at that meeting stepped up toward the end of the conversation and said we’re talking about a lot of things, but we really need a solid action plan. We need to address this immediately. That really was a catalyst that got us moving even quicker. We worked over Christmas Break and decided to have an Aspiring Substitute Teacher Academy, which I have to admit I kind of stole that name from IASA. We thought let’s try an academy for one night and see what kind of response we get. We put out our cry for help and told our communities there is a crisis in our school system. We publicized it and tried to really draw a lot of interest. At that meeting, I had a PowerPoint and facilitated the presentation on behalf of our team. We talked about the problem, some data behind the problem and what we’re

Can you start out by saying a little bit about yourself and your school district? I am superintendent of Oakwood School District #76. We’re right off of Interstate 74, next to Danville, in east central Illinois. We have approximately 875 students in our preK–12 school district. It’s a privilege to serve there. This is my 31st year in education, and I’ve served six years as superintendent. New Approach to Substitute Teacher Shortage Struggling to find substitute teachers in your district? In this IASA Podcast, we spoke to Larry Maynard, superintendent of Oakwood CUSD#76, about the district’s recent Aspiring Substitute Teacher Academy. The effort helped double the district’s applicant pool.

Q

6 LM February 2023