Substitute discrepancies evident at middle, high school levels, too

Eastern and Northern Henrico middle and high schools failed to fill substitute teacher positions more than once a day on average during the past two school years, according to data provided to the Henrico Citizen by Henrico County Public Schools at the newspaper's request.

The data shows that Eastern and Northern Henrico secondary schools – like their elementary school counterparts – have a disproportionately difficult time filling substitute teacher positions, when compared to schools in the West End.

More than 80 percent of the 4,525 failed attempts to fill substitute teacher positions at Henrico middle and high schools during the past two years occurred at the 10 such schools in Eastern and Northern Henrico. The rest took place at 13 West End schools.

The Citizen reported July 21 that Henrico elementary schools failed to fill substitute positions on more than 2,400 occasions during the same time period, with more than 70 percent of those instances occurring at Eastern and Northern Henrico schools.

Overall during the past two years, more than 80 percent of the "fail-to-fill" occurrences at Henrico elementary, middle and high schools took place at the 32 schools in Eastern and Northern Henrico. The remaining 18 percent took place at the 37 West End schools.

Those lopsided numbers should raise some concerns for parents about the quality of education students in the affected schools are receiving, according to LaRon Scott, an assistant professor in the VCU School of Education's Department of Counseling and Special Education and director of the school's alternative licensure program.

"Any community would be concerned when there's not an effective teacher in the classroom – whether it's one day or beyond that," said Scott, a former teacher at J.R. Tucker High School and HCPS Central Office administrator.  "It should raise an eyebrow for everyone."

But the issue is not unique to Henrico, according to Scott and the director of his department at VCU, Colleen Thoma. Though the demand for full-time teachers is high regionally and nationally, fewer would-be teachers are earning bachelor's and master's degrees, causing many school divisions to hire as full-time teachers people who might otherwise have been hired as substitutes first, Thoma said.

"If they're being hired into those long-term positions, then that further weakens the [substitute] pool that you can pull from," she said.

Numbers worse for Chesterfield
Five of the six Eastern and Northern Henrico middle schools (all but Moody) each failed to fill substitute teacher spots on at least 342 occasions during the two-year period. But the six West End middle schools collectively failed to fill such spots only 336 times during the same period.

The most-affected secondary school was Fairfield Middle, which needed substitutes nearly 2,400 times during the two years (the most among county middle schools) and failed to find them 576 times (also the most).

At the high school level, Henrico, Highland Springs and Varina high schools each needed subs more than 2,500 times and failed to find them more than 400 times apiece. On the other end of the spectrum, Godwin High needed subs more than 1,700 times but failed to find them on just 8 occasions.

If the issue is eye-opening in Henrico, it could be considered downright troubling in Chesterfield, where substitutes are significantly more difficult to find.

Despite needing substitute teachers on fewer occasions than Henrico during the past two years, Chesterfield County Public Schools failed to find them nearly 5,000 more times – on a total of about 12,000 occasions – according to data provided to the Citizen by CCPS at the newspaper's request.

On average, Chesterfield schools across all three levels failed to fill subtitute spots more than 15 percent of the time. Henrico's failure rate was lower – about 10 percent overall.

In an attempt to address the issue there, the Chesterfield County School Board last year approved the creation of "permanent substitute" positions.

"Elementary schools with the highest instances of unfilled substitution positions were given a fully licensed teacher who is a floater serving classes where a teacher needs to be out of the building," CCPS spokesman Tim Bullis told the Citizen. "If all teachers are in the building on a particular day, the permanent substitute assists with pull-outs and small group reading."

Henrico schools also have the option individually to hire permanent substitutes as well, if needed, and last year 16 schools – all in Northern and Eastern Henrico – chose to do so, hiring a total of 23 permanent subs.

Many Henrico schools turn first to HCPS retirees who are part of the school system's post-retirement employment program (PREP), which pays them a percentage of their annual retirement-year salaries in exchange for their in-school assistance for a minimum number of days each year.

A 'burdensome' issue
When substitute positions go unfilled at the elementary level, principals, assistant principals or other administrators may fill in for the day, or classes may be split and sent to other classrooms.

At the secondary level, other teachers often are asked to help fill in. That can create extra stress, particularly when it happens repeatedly, according to a Varina High School teacher who contacted the Citizen.

"Most often, we are required to give up our planning time (the ONLY free time we have all day) to cover another teacher's class," she wrote. " I'm not saying this is better or worse than an administrator covering it, but it is just as burdensome."

Scott recalled similar occasions during his time at Tucker and admitted that it was difficult and could be frustrating.

"But as a teacher, it's not unusual to find yourself in a situation here you have to rebound from plans that you're not expecting," he said. "It's a unique part of what makes educators resilient and really adaptive. But it certainly does cause some trickle-down effect. . . in the classroom."

At hard-to-staff schools, school system officials face the dilemma of choosing from the lesser of two evils, Thoma said: hiring less-qualified substitutes in order to ensure the positions are filled, or stretching other full-time teachers thin by having them accept additional students for the day.

"In some ways, it can be better to have qualified teacher with larger group of students than unqualified teacher with a smaller group," Thoma said. "I feel for principals and school districts where they're caught in the middle."

'No easy answer'
Some readers reacted on social media to the Citizen's July 21 article with shock and frustration, while others said that the data about Eastern Henrico elementary schools and their difficulty finding substitutes was not surprising.

Several opined that the school system should relax its mandatory requirement that substitute classroom teachers have four-year college degrees, while others suggested higher rates of pay for subs who work at the schools most impacted by the issue. (From 2007 to 2010, Henrico paid substitute teachers who worked at Henrico, Highland Springs or Varina high schools or Fairfield, Rolfe or Wilder middle schools an extra $25 more per day.)

Some readers suggested that the school system follow Chesterfield’s approach and hire more permanent substitutes.

Henrico pays a daily rate of $83.84 for classroom substitutes – slightly more than Chesterfield, which pays $78 per day for substitutes with four-year degrees. Chesterfield does not require its subs to have college degrees, though those who don't  have them earn less (about $49 per day) and still must have completed at least 60 college credit hours.

It's unclear how, or if, Henrico County's School Board intends to address the issue of hiring substitutes. Henrico school system officials have chosen not to comment publicly about any future steps, except for a statement from spokesman Andy Jenks that indicated officials are aware of the data and prefer to address it first with the School Board before commenting to the media. The board next meets Aug. 11, but it's unknown whether it will discuss or hear input about the issue then.

To Scott, the first priority should be analyzing the root cause of the situation.

"I'm not sure of the data system Henrico has in place to collect that info, but one area to really dive into would be the reasoning behind why those positions may not become filled in those parts of the county or at specific schools," he said. "What are the challenges that the substitutes are experiencing that would deter them from filling those vacancies?"

What’s the best solution? Scott, like many others, isn’t sure.

“There’s no easy answer to any of this.”