Rachel Han

Edustaff signs are located along the premise of the school to advertise for substitute teachers.

COVID-19 stripped school districts from in-person interactions and elements of learning, but there is another overlooked issue: a shortage of substitute teachers. This is occurring throughout multiple schools across the nation. The West Linn-Wilsonville District (WLWV) is one of the communities still impacted by this issue, but recently, a solution was put in place.

Previously, the substitute teachers for the school were exclusively employees of the district. On top of a shortage of substitutes, the hiring process being done within the district made it difficult to hire substitute teachers when needed.

The biggest aspect of the change in the hiring process for substitutes is the WLWV district’s usage of Edustaff. Edustaff is a privately owned organization specialized in hiring and training substitute teachers. All schools in the district, from grades K-12, have switched to this organization.

Substitute teachers must put in an application through Edustaff, go through a background check, and then go through training. This allows the organization to control all the processes required for hiring.

Alice Anne Diehl, principal’s administrative assistant, works with substitute teachers. Diehl assures that substitutes get to the proper classrooms, makes sure they have lesson plans, and shows them how to take attendance.

“I love that the staff [and district are] being more creative with recruiting [and] I love that the staff is recruiting community members,” Diehl said. “We want our substitutes to know what our school is like, we want them to want to be here.”

One of the substitute teachers in the WLWV district is Karena Marcum. Previously, Marcum worked as a primary school teacher for 27 years. She taught during and before COVID-19, and experienced the shortage in school staff.

“As far as the shortage goes, I know that there are fewer people going into teaching in general,” Marcum said. “So there are fewer young substitutes available because teaching has become an extraordinarily stressful, complex, and tough industry or profession to join, especially in younger grades.”

Edustaff provides more job opportunities for substitute teachers and offers a biweekly stipend. Although Marcum is new to using this organization, she finds advantages with Edustaff. 

“There’s plenty of jobs for me to do, I can pick and choose which jobs I want, so it’s beneficial to me, but I feel bad for the administrators and the teachers that need help filling their assignments.” Marcum said.

The switch to Edustaff is seeing progress, but with expected setbacks. Edustaff is based in Michigan, in a time zone three hours ahead of the district. Teachers that cannot attend school on a short notice may not be able to find a substitute right away because of the timezone. To combat this issue, Edustaff is looking for staff that can work with other time zones.

“I think we’re still in the learning curve,” Diehl said. “[The time zone] is the biggest challenge, but I know they’re recruiting [workers]. But that is the biggest challenge right now, just getting adjusted.”