Staffing within the Saint Marys Area School District is changing every week, every day, and at times on an hourly basis according to officials.
There have been times since school started where they’ve had to decide whether to close school or not because of staffing shortages. The superintendent says this is not due to covid but because of staffing issues.
Since August, they’ve had about 2200 absences among all teachers, administrators, and paraprofessionals. The superintendent says less than 14 percent of those absences were covid specific., Which is about 300 people. Out of those 300, about 20 percent are for child care related issues.
“It’s not really a covid specific issue. We’ve had a lot of bereavements. We’ve had typical life situations you have to have a certain knee surgery or you have to help your grandmother get to certian doctor appointments. Even though it would be easy to place the blame on covid, that’s not really the true issue.”
He says the district is doing everything they can to keep all of their staff and students safe, and educating the children in-person.
