School year starts with few substitutes

Superintendent asks the community for support

Last May, the Grand County School District—which encompasses Helen M. Knight Elementary, Margaret L. Hopkin Middle, and Grand County High School—finished the school year with only five available substitute teachers, not nearly enough to support the needs of the district. 

School started this year on Wednesday, August 16; superintendent Taryn Kay said the lack of subs is what she anticipates to be one of the district’s biggest challenges. 

“It’s really impacted teacher morale,” Kay said. “When a teacher is out and there are no subs available, other teachers have to cover or take extra kids into their classrooms … they’ve done an amazing job tackling that problem, but it does definitely weigh on them.”

The shortage is due to a number of factors, Kay said: she points to a lack of affordable housing, the cost of living in Moab, and the loss of a group of long-term substitute teachers who retired. 

The substitute pool “really varies,” she said—many subs are outdoor recreation guides who pick up a few days here and there when the season tapers off, which also means that sub turnover is “incredibly high.” The average teacher is gone less than ten days out of the school year, Kay said. 

To address the challenge, the district upped its starting pay for substitutes—in 2019, it was $12 per hour, this year, it’s $18—and it’s encouraging anyone with even just one free day to apply. 

“Even if someone has only one day per week, or three afternoons that are consistent, we could find a job for you,” Kay said. Substitute teachers don’t have to have any formal teacher training, they only need to be able to pass a background check. 

The strain caused by the shortage is felt intensely by teachers. When there’s a sub shortage at the elementary level, teachers have to take extra kids into their classrooms; at the middle and high school levels, teachers have to give up their prep periods to cover another class. 

Jessica Manderfield, the high school’s woodshop teacher, said she’s constantly thinking about how taking a day off will impact her colleagues. That stress especially comes into play when there are teaching conferences: if six teachers wish to attend a conference and there are only five subs, there’s no wiggle room for another teacher to be out. 

“You shouldn’t have to feel bad about things like taking students on a field trip or traveling to attend a friend’s wedding,” Manderfield said. “I think the biggest thing is the disruption it makes in the school, trying to find other teachers to cover a class.” 

The high school’s transition to a quarter system will hopefully ease the burden on teachers, said GCHS Principal Dr. Todd Thompson. With the old trimester system, students had six classes at a time; this year, they’ll have four per quarter. Teachers will have more time with their students, and students will have less of a homework load. 

Manderfield said the new system might make days easier for subs, too: instead of five classes per day, teachers will only have three. 

“We feel like it will make our students better students, and our teachers better teachers,” Thompson said. 

HMK will also pilot a new program similar to a “room parent”: parents will have the opportunity to become a “guest teacher” for their child’s class, and volunteer to be the first person their child’s teacher calls when a substitute is needed. 

“If every teacher at HMK was able to get one person to agree to be the guest teacher for their class, that would give us 35 more subs,” Kay said. 

“We appreciate the support of the community,” Thompson said. “What we do isn’t possible without them.” 

You can learn more about how to become a substitute teacher at www.grandschools.org.