KHS’s longheld record of most teachers out on the same day was broken Jan. 28 with an outbreak of viruses and planned absences. Ellen Kraichely, executive secretary, said she was rushing to find substitute teachers to make up for this massive loss. She said she had to put teachers, administrators and walking counselors in other departments to supervise during their planning periods.
According to Kraichely, the final count of teachers who were absent was 33 teachers; 11 were out sick or with sick family members, 19 were at a teacher development meeting and three out on maternity leave. Kraichely said that when teachers call ahead to schedule their absence, they send out an alert job offer on an app called Frontline to all the substitute teachers in the school district.
“That’s great if you can plan your absence, but teachers will get sick overnight or their kids and they can’t plan that,” Kraichley said. “They’ll put their absence in. [Then,] substitute teachers will see it first thing in the morning and pick it up.”
Kraischley said that with unplanned absences, substitutes will usually already have a placement. Kraichley said that there were 12 absences that weren’t filled.
“I had a whole spreadsheet of shuffling people around to spots they could fill. If they had a free period or in the Pride Center, we pulled them out and had them sub for a class,” Kraichley said. “We also utilized our walking counselors, and even [asked] teachers from other departments to [sub.] Dr. [Simon] Drew in the English department covered a foods class.”
Assistant Principal Alex Clark substituted for a Spanish II class. He said that since he took Spanish throughout his education, he could volunteer to help make up for the lack of teachers.
“[The students] were fantastic even though I was not much help to them,” Clark said. “[When] they started asking me questions and for help, I realized I don’t remember much [Spanish].”
Clark said that this wasn’t his first time subbing as a school administrator in a classroom. He said he had been a principal at other schools where he would volunteer to sub for classes if needed. He said that especially since it’s the sick season, you have to do what’s best for the students and school.
“I called Mrs. Kraichely, who’s in charge of organizing the subs, and told her to sign me up,” Clark said. “Part of the job is to support students and staff, and in this case it was needed yesterday.”
PSA from the nurses office: In order to avoid sickness and spreading it to students and staff, please be sure to wash your hands, cover coughs and sneezes, drink plenty of water, get plenty of rest and stay home when you are sick.