Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

OGDEN — The ongoing spike in COVID-19 cases isn’t just keeping kids out of the classroom.

It’s also caused an unprecedented jump in the number of infected teachers, straining the ability of Ogden School District officials to keep all classrooms staffed.

For now — Friday and Monday, at least — all Ogden students have shifted to remote learning, a short-term fix to the issue. While some sick teachers need to steer clear of classrooms so they don’t infect others, they aren’t so ill that they can’t handle remote teaching, says Jer Bates, the Ogden School District spokesperson.

But kids are tentatively scheduled to return to school on Tuesday and COVID-19 won’t immediately go away. That has school officials searching for fixes to the teacher shortage, including use of district administrators in classrooms and increased recruitment of substitutes.

Besides a jump in the number of teachers calling in sick, there’s been an increase in substitutes ill with COVID-19 and other ailments. Indeed, on Thursday, before the decision to move schooling online across the district for Friday and Monday, 114 teachers and district staff called in sick, up from the norm for this time of year, 50-60. What’s more, Bates said, after tapping into the pool of available substitutes, the district was still short 45 teachers.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

“This week, we’ve seen higher numbers than we’ve ever seen before,” Bates said. That factored in the decision to move to remote learning.

To address the issue, the district put a call out to the public for substitute candidates. “We encourage community members with available time to consider joining our substitute workforce,” reads a message on Thursday sent to the school community, meant primarily to announce the shift to online learning for Friday and next Monday.

What’s more, administrators are helping as teachers in some cases. “Our first go-to pool — teacher specialists,” Bates said, that is administrators who serve as coaches to teachers.

In some cases when subs aren’t available, students without teachers are sent to other classes that do have teachers, resulting in extra-crowded classrooms.

The district uses ESS, a staffing company, to recruit substitute teachers. One of the basic qualifications for recruits, according to the ESS website, is a high school or high school equivalency diploma. Would-be recruits must also pass a criminal background check.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

“We want to have people who are really qualified to be a substitute and who want to be there, who care about the kids there,” Bates said. Because Ogden School District teachers plan instruction ahead of time each week, substitutes have prepared plans they can follow in classrooms, easing the transition.

School officials said they’d review the number of reported sick kids on Monday in deciding if any schools ought to continue with remote learning next Tuesday and beyond.

Several Weber School District schools moved to online learning starting last Tuesday because of high COVID-19 case counts and they are to start returning to in-person schooling on Monday. It’s the same in the Davis School District, though two schools there will move to remote learning starting this coming Monday, the district announced Friday.

The aim of remote or online learning is to continue educating kids while keeping them separate to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

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