At the end of September the Renton School District had 35 unfilled teaching positions.

“That took 35 people out of the sub pool before anybody called in sick,” said Debra Tito, executive director of human resources for the district. “Before we had any professional development, we had to have a sub in those classes.”

Including surrounding school districts, the number jumps to 155 open teaching positions, an unheard of amount, according to Tito.

The openings are creating a substitute teacher shortage in the region that’s plaguing the Renton School District, hindering teachers’ opportunity for professional development and affecting students in the classroom. Substitutes are needed to fill teaching positions when teachers call in sick, but also when teachers are pulled to participate in professional development outside the classroom.

On top of this, the district has had numerous unfilled teaching positions they must fill from their sub pool, which used to have 200 people in it. In recent years that number has dwindled making it a challenge to hire substitutes.

“A couple of things have happened; with the economic downturn, fewer people went into education, which then provides us less supply of people who either are going to teach or would be in the sub pool if they didn’t get a teaching job that first year or two,” said Tito.

The district has also added full-day kindergarten and increased enrollment, which adds to the number of teachers that are needed. They’ve seen a decrease in the flow of subs into their sub pool and an increase in the flow of subs out of the sub pool as those teachers get hired for permanent jobs.

“So that supply and demand is really what’s contributing to the sub shortage and not just in Renton,” Tito said. “This is a regional problem for the Puget Sound Area.”

In the classroom

For Lakeridge Elementary Principal Jessica Calabrese the problem looks like this: When there’s no substitutes, she has to pull in a patchwork of building staff – such as the librarian, P.E. teacher and sometimes herself – to guest teach in one classroom throughout the day.

“So we piece together a day for them (students), but to them that’s very disconcerting,” Calabrese said. “They’re used to that constant person all day. You have to go in and renew relationships with the kids for a few minutes. It takes up a lot of the instructional time.”

Colin Falk, Nelsen Middle School principal, has often had to combine classes such as P.E. or special education to cover sub shortages. When this happens sometimes teachers don’t get their planning hour because they have to go teach a class.

Sometimes the classes that students are put in don’t match where they are in their regular class in terms of studies.

“They’re not getting the same level of instruction that they would from their regular teacher and if it’s different teachers all day, they’re getting different levels of instruction all day,” said Falk.

Remedies to shortage

“We really don’t think that there’s an immediate solution,” said Tito.

She hopes getting the word out will encourage more people to apply to be substitutes.

The district has also made some changes like decrease the amount of professional development that’s required of teachers. Even this isn’t a true solution though, as teachers might have to stay after school or come in during off hours to get their professional development.

“Given the shortage – all the way around – and trying to have quality systemic professional development for all levels in a consistent way, we really do have to look at different funding models and different structures,” said Sheryl Moore, assistant superintendent for district human resources.

Those different structures include looking at different calendar models for professional development and funding to pay teachers to stay above their base contract.

But these are long-term solutions, she said.

For information on jobs in the Renton School District, visit https://jobs.rentonschools.us/JobOpenings.aspx.