When the pandemic first began and the world went on lockdown, the Austin Independent School District made the decision to terminate almost all of the substitute teachers so that they could collect unemployment benefits. Because schools were using remote learning, demand for subs decreased subsequently reducing their income. Only a few long-standing substitutes were kept. 

Bonnie Baker, the staff substitute coordinator, has been monitoring the substitutes that come in and out of McCallum.

“The pandemic definitely played a big role because when we went to virtual school AISD completely shut down,” Baker said. “With so few teachers in the sub pool, the district has had to start over this year, and it had a huge impact on substitute numbers.”

Now that teachers are in person, they are once again requesting subs for sick leave, mental health days, family emergencies and more. Occasionally, teachers with children will be forced to take leave if schools are closed due to COVID exposures. 

“Everybody is affected, some departments struggle more than others,” Baker said.

When substitutes are not available while teachers are out, classes worth of students sit in the cafeteria and complete their work independently, or with the help of their peers. This occurs districtwide and can vary each day per school. Teachers tend to assign assignments asynchronously or let students use class time as a study hall. 

Senior Miles Bourgeois lacked a substitute during seventh-period fourth-year engineering. Since engineering is such a hands-on class, it is important for students to be in the right headspace.

“This just destroys your motivation,” Bourgeois said. “It reminds you that you’re just a cog in the system, and you really don’t mean much. The lack of teachers all around is going to decrease the amount of actual learning that students are doing.”

Bourgeois agreed that having a substitute in class is more productive than working alongside peers in the cafeteria because it increases motivation and creates a better environment for learning. 

“Even though they aren’t my teacher, they are still someone I can go up to and say “Hey can I pick your brain about this specific thing?” Bourgeois said. “Having someone is better than having no one.”

While students who lack a sub for a short time spend their school days in the cafeteria, others with teachers taking longer leaves can find themselves going to class with the same long-term sub. 

Senior Zara Graham is experiencing something similar, while her semester-long AP economics class will have a substitute for the next three weeks, after a one-week leave earlier this month. 

“It can be a little disruptive because the sub doesn’t know what’s going on a lot of the time, I mean it is an AP Economics class,” Graham said.

Although the learning environment and most of the curriculum remain the same, Graham and her peers must learn all of the material in one semester, to prepare for the AP exam at the end of the year. 

“A couple of my peers in that class were talking about how it’s hard to learn in an AP class when you’re already cut down to 18 weeks of learning and the teacher isn’t even there for part of it,” Graham said. “It also makes it hard because you can’t contact him. So if you have a question, you’re going to just have to deal with it. There really isn’t an alternative.”

Circumstances are improving since the start of in-person school. Since mid-October, there has been an obvious increase in the substitutes available to the district. 

“As the sub coordinator, when I see new names coming in of people who have never subbed at McCallum, then I know they’re hiring people and bringing them in,” Baker said. “They have worked really hard, I can see a huge increase in the past few weeks. Ms. Griffith and our admin team have worked very hard to get the sub situation addressed.”

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