Middletown BOE Scrambling To Hire Subs As Teachers Request Leave

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Right now, Middletown public schools are still on track to open on the first day of school Sept. 14, and to offer its hybrid, half-in-class/half-home model.

However, in order to do so, the Middletown school district is grappling with an unprecedented number of teachers and staff who have requested paid leave or accommodations due to COVID. Right now, the district is scrambling to find substitute teachers who can come in and teach.

"They've even expanded the search to outside Middletown's usual sub candidate pool, meaning they are looking for teachers from farther away," said Middletown Board of Education president Pamela Rogers.

In fact, Middletown put out this call for any interested substitute teacher to apply.

As of last Thursday, the district had about 100 vacancies to fill: Forty of them are certified teaching positions, and another 60 are non-certificated staff, such as paraprofessionals, secretaries and maintenance.

But Rogers said she's sure the number has gone up since then.

"I don't know how much it's gone up by, and we will get the full report at next week's Board of Education meeting," said Rogers. "It did increase and the administration has been working 17-hour days to get schools open and make this happen. We know 80 percent of Middletown families want to send their children back to school. We need to explain this to the public and we want to be completely transparent."

Outgoing Middletown schools superintendent Dr. Bill George, who has since retired from the district, addressed the matter in this letter sent home to families last week.

"We are addressing staffing challenges," he wrote. "Requests for leaves and accommodations are presenting a significant challenge to administration as we work to find replacements."

"As of August 26, we have received 37 COVID-related leave of absence notifications ... There are 40 certificated staff positions we are working to fill," he said. "In addition, there are approximately 63 non-certificated staff positions that need to be filled including paraprofessionals, secretaries and maintenance staff."

"This situation is fluid, as we are still receiving staff requests for leaves," he said.

Additionally, new parents are requesting their children go virtual "every day," said Rogers.

Middletown schools employ about 900 teachers and staff and the majority have agreed to come back and teach from their classrooms, with a rotating schedule of students present four days a week. Computers will be set up in the classroom, so kids learning at home can follow along.

On Wednesdays, all the students will be at home, but the teacher must still be in the classroom, teaching virtually in front of a computer.

However, about 100, or more, teachers have put in for either of these two requests:

• The first is for paid leave. Under the federal CARES Act, teachers can request a leave, and be paid two thirds of their salary for up to 12 weeks.
• Another request is for accommodations. "These are requests to be able to teach virtually, but teach from their homes," explained Rogers. "So we put a paraprofessional or a substitute in the classroom (with the students), and the teacher teaches virtually from their computer at home. Now, we are reluctant to do that at the elementary level, but we are doing that at the high school level."

More than 70 teachers have made this request, said Dr. George, and many of them did so because of childcare issues for their own children.

"Many of these are teaching staff with highly specialized certifications at the high school level, which are very hard to replace under normal circumstances," he said. "Therefore, we have accommodated some of their medical needs by allowing them to start the school year teaching remotely."

"We are bending over backwards to get these kids into some form of live instruction," said Rogers.

The district will give a full report of where it is at with staffing at the upcoming Middletown Township Board of Education Wednesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m. (public at approximately 7:00 p.m.)

This is a special voting meeting. The meeting will be conducted virtually using the Zoom conferencing platform.

Please follow the link, or the U.S. dial-in phone option, to attend.

• Join the meeting or follow the link: https://zoom.us/j/96188351626

• Telephone: +1 (929) 205-6099

• If prompted please enter the Webinar ID: 961 8835 1626

YouTube: If you do not wish to participate via the Zoom platform, the meeting will be streamed live on the district YouTube channel.

Those attending the meeting via Zoom will have the opportunity to comment during the public portion of the meeting by requesting to participate by utilizing the "Raise Hand" feature on their Zoom attendee dashboard. Those viewing the YouTube stream may have their comments or questions read into the record by first entering a request to participate into the live chat field, followed by their comment.

Additionally, members of the public may email their comments to boardmeeting@middletownk12.org . If you choose to enter your comment via YouTube or email, please include your name and home address.

Formal Action May Be Taken

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