I teach at a small charter school with about 40 staff members (30 full-time, 10 part-time) and 425 students.Â
So far this year, four full-time staff members have resigned.Â
Since omicron has spiked, average staff absences per day hover around 10.Â
On a good day, we have about 60% of the full-time staff present. A good day.
The critical mass of staff absences constantly looms over us like some sort of doomsday piñata filled with mommy blogger social media rants and defunded 22-23 school year budgets. I keep waiting for the point when administration will have to go to distance learning because there are literally not enough adults to supervise each classroom. We toed that line today, but the administration is still planning to come back in-person on Monday.
Meanwhile, students have be absent for weeks at a time. I have multiple kids who missed entire units of the curriculum in multiple subjects, and who are still expected to be tested on those missed standards. When I asked how I was supposed to:
1. Continue the differentiated curriculum at the pace demanded by state testing 2. Catch up students who have missed 3+ weeks of school in multiple subjects 3. Cover for absent teachers and staff on my breaks and prep 4. Support IEP students who are not receiving services because we are so short-staffed
The vice principal literally told me, âI donât know.â And like. Yeah. I donât know either man. Guess weâll all burn out or die from COVID! Great plan!
