MOSCOW, Pa. — All over northeastern and central Pennsylvania, school leaders are trying to plan.
What will the school year look like come fall?
“There’s a lot of concern. What happens if a teacher gets sick? Does she then have to, along with all of her students, have to quarantine for 14 days? Those students have siblings, do the siblings have to quarantine for 14 days? And it just becomes such a ripple effect, so I feel like if we were to go back, it wouldn’t be for long because something would happen," said Pam Scandale of Clarks Summit, a former substitute, and current full-time preschool teacher.
One of the things school administrators are wondering right now is: will there be enough substitutes if schools reopen?
As some teachers express concern about being inside school buildings during this health crisis, should they get sick with COVID-19 or anything else, substitutes have concerns about filling in, too.
"Also, with the pay as well, like I know subs are saying as well we feel we should get a pay raise because we are dealing with even more safety precautions now. And like, we don’t get sick days. We don’t sub, we don’t get paid. Teachers get sick days, personal days, they get paid no matter what as they use those personal days and everything whereas we’re not there, we’re not paid," said Lauren Rzeszewski of South Abington Township.
Some substitute teachers say as long as the districts have a good plan in place, they’re ready and willing to fill in when they get the call.
“I understand the fears, I truly do, but I think that we need to try to expand more of the normalcy and try to get back to not being so fearful and I think we need to give it a try," said Judith Grandjean of Moscow, who substitutes in several area school districts.
District leaders are supposed to work with state and federal health officials to monitor the health crisis and come up with final school plans in the coming weeks.