PCPS Logo

The past two years have been difficult for everyone, school systems included. As the COVID-19 pandemic created havoc for those responsible for keeping our students safe and learning in the classrooms, a group of dedicated professionals did their part to help keep things moving in the right direction.

 

“One of the biggest issues we faced during the pandemic was finding a way to keep our students in the classroom, while also ensuring we had qualified educators on standby in the event that a teacher came up positive for the virus,” Dr. Kevin Siers, Superintendent of Pulaski County Public Schools said. “Every school district we talked too had the same issue. The students, being younger and typically healthy, seemed less likely to get the virus or suffer the effects as severely as the teachers and staff. Realizing that we needed to do everything we could to keep our students in the buildings and engaged, we had to find creative solutions to make that happen.”

PCPS Logo

 

One solution worked very effectively. Using school system employees who normally aren’t in the classroom provided a queue of qualified and experienced educators to keep Pulaski County students on campus.

 

“We asked everyone with a professional educators’ license to participate and the response was incredible.”  Dr. Siers stated.  “We had 63 people on standby who took on the challenge of continuing to do their normal duties, while also moving into a classroom when needed to teach. Having that type of resource available was a huge factor in making the past two years a success.”

 

So who were these reserve forces and how exactly was having them on hand helpful?

 

The group was made up of principals, assistant principals, Title I teachers, school counselors and school board office administrators, including the superintendent. They were used as substitute teachers throughout the school division.

 

“Being able to send these qualified educators in helped us be one of the first school divisions to bring our students back into the classroom five days per week,” Dr. Siers said. “It also helped us keep our students in the classroom when many other school divisions couldn’t. Without this group, I imagine it would have doubled or tripled the number of virtual days for our students.”

 

Another benefit of having this group on hand was financial.

 

“It likely saved the school division $15,000 to $25,000 in substitute costs in the long run,” Siers said. “But that was just a tertiary effect. The primary benefits were that we have more certified educators providing substitute instruction and that it prevented us from having to call additional virtual days. It was a great team effort and it showed us just how much PCPS employees care about our students.”