Mark's Monday Morning Memo
April 4, 2016
Earth Day Turns 45
Apex Fun Run Dates Confirmed
All-School Pep Rally - Wednesday, May 11, 2016 - 2:15-3:00 - Gymnasium
Classroom lessons - May 12, 13, 16, 17, 18 and 19, 2016 (times to be determined)
Fun Run - Friday, May 20, 2016 (times to be determined)
Substitute Coverage
As Spring arrives and we enter the final ten weeks of school, I want you to know my thinking about covering classrooms when we are short substitute teachers. Spring tends to be a time that substitute teachers are in demand and supply is lower. First, I want you to know that we make every effort to find substitute teachers when we are short and use practices such as:
-entering absences on AESOP any time of the day;
-calling potential substitute teachers directly from the district substitute availability list or from our list of favorites;
-working with HR to find available half-day substitutes in the district (those who could add to an assignment).
Options I have available to me include:
-dividing students among other grade level classrooms;
-cancelling music or phy ed classes and reassigning those teachers to a classroom and time-carding teachers for missed prep time;
-assigning non-classroom, non-special education licensed staff members to cover (Mark, Dan, Amy, Jodie, Cindy, Kelly, Erin).
Some options I use more often than others because I don’t think adding more students to a classroom or cancelling phy ed or music are the best options, but the contract limits the number of times I can assign non-classroom licensed teachers to cover. I’m letting you know this in case we find ourselves short a substitute during the last ten weeks of school. Thank you in advance for your support and please let me know if you have any questions.