Local districts laud change in substitute certificates

Cape Girardeau County's two largest school districts welcome a rule change made permanent Tuesday by the Missouri State Board of Education to permit those seeking a substitute-teaching certificate the choice of the standard 60 hours of college credit or 20 hours of online training.

The option was put in place on a temporary basis last year to remove barriers to employment of substitutes and to fight a recruitment shortage — which had been an issue in the state for six years but was further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Anything to help us fill sub spots more easily with those folks who are caring and patient, kind people with a heart for helping children, then obviously all school districts would welcome (this)," said Kristin Tallent, communications director for the Cape Girardeau School District.

Bucking an apparent statewide trend, Cape Girardeau public schools are not experiencing a current sub shortfall.

"Luckily, over the past couple of years, we've really been in a good spot with our substitute teachers," Tallent said. "Not saying we haven't had some issues at certain times, especially during COVID, but overall, we've been in a pretty good position."

Since 2018, the district has offered an incentive program to substitutes. Teacher subs who work 10 days in any given calendar month receive a $100 bonus.

"I think (the bonus) has helped and we've also increased our substitute pay, too — to make sure we stay competitive (with other districts)," Tallent said.

In the county's largest district, Jackson, school officials plan an event Friday designed to attract college students to substitute teaching.

"We are doing a training at Southeast Missouri State University geared toward education majors to offer some life experience through substituting and we'll provide some additional training for the rest of our (subs) and if they're new to the district," said Matt Lacy, assistant superintendent.

"It'll help those (SEMO) students decide if teaching is a good fit and is a great way of learning classroom management techniques because (for substitutes), it's a different situation every day. You may go from kindergarten to working with seniors, so if you can work with various age groups, it'll make you stronger as an educator."

Bus drivers

The federal Department of Transportation continues to mandate masks on school buses. Finding men and women to drive students continues to be a challenge, Lacy said.

"It has been difficult to find (them) over the past couple of years. As you drive across Missouri, every small town has a bus with a sign on it, advertising for drivers," he said.

The Jackson School District has placed a bus in its high school parking lot facing East Jackson Boulevard again this summer, advertising for drivers.

In the Cape Girardeau schools, it's a somewhat different story.

"We're in a good spot with our bus drivers. Our bus company reports we are fully staffed for driver positions to start the school year. The federal mandate requiring masks on buses will hopefully put families at ease that there is this level of protection on these vehicles," Tallent said.

Masks

Both districts will not require masking of students or staff as classes resume this week but highly recommended face coverings. Classes resume today in the Jackson School District and Wednesday in Cape Girardeau public schools.