The Cure to Extended Absences
HUB correspondent
Trish Butler’s five math classes have had a substitute, due to Butler’s maternity leave, from the first day of school until Oct. 4, about five and a half weeks later.
However, Butler didn’t just take her leave. “While I’ve been on maternity leave, I’ve continued to be in contact with Mr. Kraft, my sub. I also worked over the summer to plan all of the lessons that Mr. Kraft will be teaching,” Butler said.
John Kraft was not picked as Butler’s substitute teacher without thought. Kraft taught math for an extended period at Emerson Junior High last year, and had been the substitute for Butler on various other occasions.
“Making myself available to my students is really important when teaching for an extended period,” Kraft said. Kraft is available to students at lunch, after school and through his email.
This is not the only instance of extended teacher absence at DHS. During the second week of school, Christina Bernadac, who teaches Spanish, was absent due to sickness. Susan Pangelinan, who teaches English, has been absent since last year because of her involvement in the military.
Students walked into classroom N-13 on Sept. 2 and searched for Bernadac, their teacher. “Well she’s not back yet,” one student said after seeing the substitute teacher for the fourth day in a row.
“Although our guest teachers are greatly appreciated; each day that the regular DJUSD teacher is not present in the classroom, the educational experience of the student is negatively impacted,” said Kevin French, the district’s associate superintendent for human resources, in an email.
A study by Raegan Miller, Richard J. Murnane and John B. Willett, graduates from the Harvard University School of Education, supports French’s assertion. The report states, “We estimate that each 10 days of teacher absences reduce students’ mathematics achievement by 3.3 percent of a standard deviation.”
However, Butler holds a slightly different view. “The extended absences of teachers affect every student differently. Some students aren’t going to be affected at all while others will most likely struggle.”
Principal Jacquelyn Moore compared teacher absence to missing a day in a different job. “Teachers can’t just catch up. They are with their students certain amounts of time each day and they can’t extend that,” Moore said.
“[Bernadac] just gave us work to keep us busy,” Daniel Maria said. Maria thought the lessons were very simple because the substitute teacher was teaching a Spanish 6 class without being able to speak Spanish.
“It all depends on the substitute teacher and the lesson plan,” Bernadac said. Moore agreed with Bernadac that both are important.
“The most that we, as teachers and as a school, can do, is to find competent replacements for the teachers and to ease the transition between the sub and the teacher,” Butler said.
Teachers get ten total days off work during the school year, although more days can be added for family emergency and maternity leave. Eight of these days are for sickness and two are personal days.
However, all sickness days not taken by teachers roll over as personal days for the next year.
“I have enough personal days that I could probably take a whole year off,” Moore said.
