In an effort to address the demand for new staff and the stresses currently placed on existing personnel, the Wright City R-II School District has developed a three-part plan involving hiring, changes to pay, and a new focus on mental health.

The plan will focus on compensation for substitution hours and the mental health of the entire staff, which has been called to extra duty as a result of shortages, especially during COVID-19.

“This has been a pretty difficult year, despite us thinking it was going to be easier,” said Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “A lot of schools are doing some different things to help out staff.”

Across the district, dedicated substitute staff have only filled about 50 percent of the need this year. In the remaining cases, full-time classroom teachers are having to use their planning hour to cover classrooms that lack an instructor.

“That means we’re taking away seven prep times from individual teachers and asking them to cover a class,” said Berger. “We feel like at some level instruction is sacrificed, but it could also affect the teacher who staffs that class because that’s their prep time.”

Given that extra demand placed upon teachers, R-II has decided to increase the hourly compensation from $13 to $30 for the hours teachers fill in for absent colleagues. The Wright City School Board has decided to make this pay retroactive for any hours covered during the 2021-22 school year, as well as any pay going forward.

“Since the beginning of the year, if you’ve been covering a prep time, you’re going to get paid the different balance between $13 and $30,” said Berger.

R-II also decided to hire two full-time contracted personnel who will serve as employee substitutes. They will show up to a building each day and be deployed to fill substitute roles where needed.

“This move goes outside of our contract with (substitute teacher provider) Penmac, and we just hire those people on our own,” said Berger. “Prior to COVID our fill rate for substitutes was above 80 percent, and now we’ve dropped off so far that we've got to do as much as possible to address it.”

Another step the district is taking to support the staff, many of whom have been asked to take on increased responsibilities, is by implementing a mental health day on Feb. 18.

“The discussion and idea didn’t originate in our district,” said Berger. “There were other districts in our region offering a mental health day.”

R-II chose this particular date because it was originally scheduled as a professional development day for teachers, meaning students would already be out of school.

“This allowed us the flexibility to provide the day off for teachers without causing parents to have to change their schedules or having to make any significant changes,” added Berger.

Berger is hopeful these steps will alleviate stress on existing staff and decrease the burden of having to scramble to fill substitute roles moving into the future.

“We feel like between those three things, it’s an acknowledgment that we know we have an issue,” said Berger. “I think it was our best effort to address the issue, but it by no means resolves the issue.”