January 2022 Omicron variant causes wave in COVID-19 cases
TOTAL ABSENCES
Hays CISD
Important dates
1,000
Sept. 2020 HCISD school year begins about half remote and half in person
March 2020 HCISD transitions to virtual learning
March 2021 Statewide mask mandate lifted
As local health officials grapple with spikes in COVID-19 cases, school districts have felt the burden of each new wave and variant. Here is a closer look at the unfilled absences, month to month, within Hays CISD. ABSENCES WAVES OF
800
PEAK 901
PEAK 410
600
PEAK 296
400
200
0
SCHOOL YEAR
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
SOURCES: HAYS CISD/ COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
YEARLY AVERAGE: 132.2
YEARLY AVERAGE: 162.6
YEARLY AVERAGE: 406.42
To help fill the gaps, the 30 hours of college credit required to be a substitute teacher could be waived if the principal of the school recom- mended a parent to the role, which Savoy said was not ideal but only a temporary measure. “The kids generally just miss out on learning opportunities when there’s not a fully certified teacher [in the room] who’s been planning every- thing for months,” Noble said. The situation in HCISD only under- scored the national issue plaguing classrooms across the country. A study conducted by the Charles Butt Foundation found that the num- ber of teachers seriously considering leaving the profession increased by 10% from 2020 to 2021, and Noble is one of them. The middle school teacher—in his eighth year in the pro- fession—said it will be his last. Losing interest Noble has been planning to leave his position since last summer as the job
has become increasingly difficult. High levels of work-related stress, excessive workload and feeling under- valued were only a few of the reasons teachers cited for their considering of leaving the profession, according to the study by the Charles Butt Foundation. “Being a teacher is an incredibly dif- ficult job—it has been for a long time. It’s continued to get harder and the last two years have been really stressful,” Noble said. “I wouldn’t list COVID[-19] as my reason, but it’s just one more strain on a system where teachers are constantly asked to do more with no additional resources.” The district has been doing what it can in terms of wages, Noble said, but he understands that they have limited financial resources. HCISD’s 2020-2021 budget shows that about 70% of total expenditures are payroll related. HCISD base pay for teachers enter- ing the workforce is lower than the statewide average of just over $54,000. The salary is just one more
reason Noble has decided to leave education for good. “There’s only so much money. Being a teacher requires a lot of skills, and it’s hard to keep extremely skilled people in a jobwhere there’s not a lot of oppor- tunity to grow—-financially anyway,” Noble said. He is not the only one being deterred from the education field. Mayland, who graduated fromTexas State University’s College of Education in December, began student teaching in the fall at a school in New Braunfels ISD that was very short staffed, he said. What he thought would be a great experience that would lead to a full- time career after graduation became a tough pill to swallow, he said. “Therewere timeswhere, if a teacher got sick, they’d bring the two class- rooms into the computer lab and they would have [around] 60 kids with one teacher,” Mayland said. “I was burned out because you couldn’t take a day off, there was nobody to cover you, there were no [substitute teachers].” He also recalls a time when his coordinating teacher had to take her child to a doctor’s appointment. The principal said that if she could not find coverage for the day, she would not be able to go. “I remember shewas so stressed out. …Shewould break down and [say], ‘It’s not a bad job. It’s just a tough time right now,’” Mayland said. Toward the end of his time as a stu- dent teacher, he felt as though the right move was to take a step back fromedu- cation, but he attended a job fair won- dering if he would meet someone who could change his mind. “It was almost like walking into a sea of sharks,” Mayland said.
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Absences go unfilled Cases among students and teachers rocketed following an Omicron variant surge, creating some of the highest unfilled absence rates in recent years. “You just knew that if you were absent, there was a very good chance that that was going to fall on your fel- low teachers to fill the gap,” Wallace Middle School seventh and eighth grade teacher James Noble said. During the 2021-22 school year through February, HCISD recorded more than 1,500 cases than it tallied in the previous full two school years. During this stretch of spiking cases and absences, campuses were pulling any and all staff and placing them in classrooms that needed it. “The kids roll with it a lot better than the adults do. The teachers are the ones who are stressing and deal- ing with five more kids in their class- room,” Tom Green Elementary School substitute Angelo Florez said.
DIMINISHING RETENTION Along with the continued rise in unfilled absences, a 2020-21 study conducted by the Charles Butt Foundation found there was a 10% increase in teachers seriously considering leaving the profession.
OPTING OUT OF THE CLASSROOM Additionally, a study conducted by the University of Houston for Raise Your Hand Texas found that the number of prospective teachers earning their teaching certification decreased by 20.06% from 2010-19.
2010
considered leaving the profession in 2020 58% OF TEACHERS considered leaving the profession in 2021 68% OF TEACHERS
30,510
20.07%
2019
24,388
SOURCES: CHARLES BUTT FOUNDATION, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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