Teacher shortage forces crowd of Concord students into lunch room for learning
Dozens students at C.C. Griffin STEM Middle School in Concord received instruction in the cafeteria Wednesday because of a lack of teachers.
Philip Furr, Cabarrus County Schools communications director, confirmed sixth graders had classes in the cafeteria. Furr said C.C. Griffin experienced higher-than-expected absences from sixth-grade core teachers and substitutes.
“(Sixth-graders as a group received instruction) with available licensed teachers rotating through core subject areas,” Furr said. “School staff made that decision in the best interest of their students as a way to utilize available licensed staff for instructional delivery and supervision. These situations are rare.”
A school staff member said Wednesday seventh- and eighth-grade students ate lunch in their classrooms because the cafeteria was “the sixth-grade classroom.” Furr said this is standard procedure in occasions when circumstances alter daily schedules..
He said the district is not immune to a nationwide substitute teacher shortage. Even before COVID, the U.S. faced a critical shortage of substitutes. Schools were unable to cover teacher absences about 20% of the time in 2018-19, according to The Hechinger Report, a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on education. North Carolina began this school year with nearly 4,500 teacher vacancies, according to the North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association.
In Cabarrus County Schools, the number of teacher openings changes daily. According to the human resources website, there are nine teacher openings in middle schools, 14 in elementary schools and 16 in high schools. There are three substitute teaching openings.
Furr said anyone interested in becoming a substitute teacher for Cabarrus County Schools should contact the district’s human resources department.
“We continue to hire substitute teachers and currently have just under 400 who are active in the district,” Furr said. “One member of the human resources team is solely dedicated to processing, hiring, and on-boarding substitute teachers. We also continue to look for creative ways to ensure our students have access to quality lessons even in difficult times when there is illness.”
Furr said C.C. Griffin STEM Middle returned to its routine classroom arrangement Thursday.
