NEW BEDFORD The days of walking into a classroom, seeing a substitute teacher and expecting a movie day are long gone due to COVID-19.
While teachers are highly valued, even considered by some to be superheroes amid the pandemic, they aren t immune to viruses, and replacements must be in place in case they cannot be present in the classroom. That s where substitute teachers have played a key role this year in keeping students on track with their academic lessons.
Pre-pandemic, each school district had a pool of substitute teachers who were paid on an hourly or daily basis and were called into schools if available. Currently, New Bedford, Fairhaven and Acushnet have employed building-based substitutes whoreport to the school each day and fill in for a teacher if need be. This reduces the chance of spreading the virus bouncing between schools through contact tracing. Dartmouth is currently experiencing a substitute shortage and typically has around 100 substitutes that rotate