PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 28, 2022
Superintendent says S-K schools to remain
in-person despite 'crisis-level' staffi ng shortages
The fi ll rate for licensed positions, which
are predominantly teaching positions,
was 58% for the fi rst two weeks of January.
In that period, there were between 75 to
130 unfi lled licensed positions each day,
according to the district’s report.
Schools were forced to close on Jan. 14
for a non-student contact day due to “cri-
sis-level” staffi ng shortages and “higher
than average student absences," according
to the district website.
Staffi ng shortages haven’t improved
much since the fi rst two weeks of January
either. A snapshot on Jan. 20 showed 767
staffi ng absences. No replacement was
found for 64% of those absences, meaning
324 positions went unfi lled.
Perry said schools are having to move
substitutes around throughout the school
to ensure positions are fi lled.
“Every day at a school, the principal
gets up, looks at their absences and says
‘I’m going to need two hours here, one hour
here and three hours here,’” Perry said.
Following Perry’s presentation, board
members inquired about diff erent ways
they, or anyone in the community, could
help with the mass staffi ng shortages.
“The staffi ng shortages look really
dire,” said board vice-chairwoman Ashley
Carson Cottingham. “If you have specifi c
things that the board can assist with, I
think a number of us are happy to help
out in schools if there’s the right place as
volunteers. Just want to be supportive for
all of you that are doing really hard work
every day.”
Perry said that right now schools are
reaching out to specifi c volunteers that
can be “trained in all the safety proce-
dures, they know when they’re available,
they know the rules and procedures of the
Students and teachers that have
contracted COVID within schools
Sept. 8 -
Dec. 17:
Jan. 3 -
Jan. 21:
820
total
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Superintendent Christy Perry told the
Salem-Keizer school board Tuesday eve-
ning that schools would continue in-per-
son learning despite extreme staffi ng
shortages and student absences across the
district.
“Our community needs to know that
every person in our organization is step-
ping up on behalf of our single most
important goal right now, which is to main-
tain in person learning fi ve days a week,”
Perry said.
Perry’s comments came during a Jan.
25 school board work session during
which she presented on staffi ng shortages
in the district since schools have returned
from winter break. The presentation high-
lighted just how bad staffi ng shortages
have gotten in Salem-Keizer schools, sim-
ilar to schools across the state, since the
Omicron COVID surge.
“The substitutes in the fi rst two weeks
of January was over two times what we
needed every other month of the year,
September through December,” Perry
said. “And we are already talking about
staffi ng shortages with our substitutes in
September through December.”
In the fi rst two weeks of January, the
district has had over 800 staffi ng absences
each day — ranging from teachers, bus
drivers, administrators and more — with
many of the positions remaining unfi lled.
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