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Wicomico Schools Add 7 Half Days To Address Teacher Burnout

SALISBURY – Pay increases for substitute teachers and the implementation of early dismissal days highlight the school system’s efforts to address teacher burnout.

On Tuesday, Superintendent Dr. Donna Hanlin presented the Wicomico County Board of Education with several measures addressing workforce shortages and mental health.

“There are shortages in all employee groups, from bus drivers, substitutes, custodians, paraprofessionals, and the teacher candidate pool is almost nonexistent …,” she said. “While words of encouragement are always helpful, we must address this issue with tangible measures to address the burnout and to show our employees we value them, and we care about their mental health and wellbeing.”

Hanlin said the school system’s leadership team had spent considerable time thinking of ways to address employees’ needs and was recommending two initiatives. The first, she noted, was a pay increase for substitute teachers.

“First, we must begin to address the substitute shortage,” she said. “With a fill rate of 39% daily, on average, many classes are not covered by substitutes, and administrators are forced to ask paraprofessionals and teachers to cover for their colleagues. This phenomenon leads to increased burnout and more teachers taking time off.”

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19 thoughts on “Wicomico Schools Add 7 Half Days To Address Teacher Burnout”

  1. They are off more than they are on now. Who else gets snow days, 2 weeks off at Christmas, spring break, every holiday………..and they think they have burnout!? Not to mention all summer off.

      1. Uhhh 60s 70s 80s didnt have all this extra time and that generation turned out fine, many within retirement age.

        Yet now there is more time off, books are bad, the curriculum poor and the kids go to college exiting with huge debt. That huge debt makes them not able to purchase a home, delay getting married and prob not having kids.

        So i ask, how was something that WAS working go so wrong?

        Has anyone WOKE up yet????

    1. The commenter does not understand the statistic.
      40% fill rate means for every 10 teachers out on a given day, only 4 substitutes are covering the absences. 6 of the absences will have cobbled together coverage of one sort or the other by others on the school staff.
      Those cobbled together coverages come by taking the planning time of those tabbed to fill in. And that lost planning time impacts the classes they have later that day or week.
      It’s a genuine problem.
      For reference, the educational requirement to substitute has been 30 college credits (in essence one year of college), plus FBI fingerprint check.

  2. I’m a teacher. I show up everyday. I have had enough of babysitting disrespectful little children while having supervisors that care more about made up paperwork. Keep your kids home and teach them yourselves, I’m quitting and taking a new job that pays a lot more where I can actually make money.

    1. Good riddance then. We don’t need you liberal zombies indoctrinating our children with your marching orders any further! You haven’t worked in a year and a half and your burned out after 3 months?!? Have fun flipping fries at McDonald’s!

      1. 10:22 – Not all teachers are liberals. The conservative teachers just mind their own business and quietly go about their work.

  3. this is where all teachers need to quit and come together and home school. think about it only children that want to learn come and learn, leaving the unwilling to learn to the government to teach them.

    1. 5:08 – yeah, right. All those teachers will run right out there and give up their salaries, benefits, and retirement to save the homeschooling crowd. Never gonna happen.

  4. Teachers – Brainwashers / same thing. When do nurses, police officers, firefighters get a day off. We have elevated teachers as heroes FIRST MISTAKE. We have made them “babysitters” while the family unit works. They took advantage of that and have corrupted the kids into libtards and democrpas.

  5. They have worked very little since covid over worked that’s a joke right, and were rewarded by stimulus checks and treated like royalty while the children’s education was put on hold, their pier guidance was put on the shelf, their contacts with friends and their own piers was put aside because of this nation’s love of Fauci. I do not feel they are owed anything more let them get back to the jobs they were supposed to be doing or find other work. I am sure there are a lot of teachers out there who just want to and need to work to support their families. Stop this madness and get back to work.

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