UP Gazette

There already was a need for substitute teachers in Michigan even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the need is even great now, educators are saying.

“We’ve always had a shortage of substitute teachers,” Michele Thomson, principal of Stambaugh Elementary School in Iron River told UpperMichiganSource.com

The report said the rise of the coronavirus pandemic, causing an increase in teacher absences, has stretched the number of available substitutes further.

Norway-Vulcan Area Schools Superintendent Lou Steigerwald said substitute teachers available today, on average, are also older than they have been in the past.  

“A lot of our substitute teachers are retired teachers," he said, according to UpperMichiganSource.com. "Some of them either have underlying conditions or they have a spouse or loved one at home who has underlying conditions.” 

Steigerwald said potential substitute teachers are reluctant to put themselves in a class setting because of the virus and the approaching flu season in winter.

“We could have a day where four or five staff members are out and we can’t get subs,” he told UpperMichiganSource.com.

Steigerwald added that since student assemblies aren’t allowed, nor is combining classes, the only recourse with an absent teacher is to send students home.

“That’s a very real concern probably for a lot of schools in the area,” he said, according to UpperMichiganSource.com.

Thomson said the West Iron Schools District is attempting to recruit teacher subs. “We aren’t seeing people come in,” she told UpperMichiganSource.com.

Those with at least 60 college credits who are interested in substitute-teaching would have the support of administrators in doing so, Thomson added.