Miami-Dade, Broward schools struggle with acute teacher shortages amid omicron surge

Thousands of teachers are calling out sick in Miami-Dade and Broward county public schools, as new COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in the county and across Florida, forcing some district staff out of the office and into classrooms.

On Monday, the first day back after the two-week winter recess, 2,110 Miami-Dade instructional personnel, including counselors, and 94 bus drivers were absent, officials said. On Tuesday, that number decreased to about 1,700 instructional staff and 78 drivers.

In Broward County public schools, about 1,640 instructional personnel were out Monday, Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright told the Herald. By Tuesday, however, approximately 1,760 called out. Moreover, while 96 bus routes on Monday were doubled, meaning some drivers picked up a second route, the number increased to 103 routes on Tuesday, she said.

Last year, when students returned from winter recess, 1,333 Miami-Dade instructional personnel were out, officials said. And in Broward, about 1,400 personnel typically call out at the start of the semester, Cartwright said.

Still, the spike should come as no surprise, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Tuesday at Miami Jackson Senior High School, where he taught a ninth-grade environmental science class that morning, though he didn’t take over the full period. In 1990, a 25-year-old Carvalho began his career in the district at Jackson High teaching science.

“We anticipated this type of impact, considering a number of factors. Number one, the very contagious nature of omicron (and) how quickly it’s spread among our community, our state and our country,” Carvalho said Tuesday at Jackson High, 1751 NW 36th St.

In the past seven days, Florida has added 56,421 new COVID cases per day on average, the highest seven-day average since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to Herald calculations of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state has also added 22 deaths.

In addition to the rising cases, Carvalho said the new semester comes after people gathered during winter break to celebrate the holidays and “we’re seeing the consequences of that.”

Though the majority of absentees can be attributed to a positive COVID-19 case, other factors, such as lingering travel delays from the holiday weekend, could also be contributing to high numbers.

Teacher shortages continue

Staffing shortages are nothing new in Miami-Dade and Broward schools. But with COVID-19 numbers surging in South Florida and across the state, filling those vacancies — and new ones when teachers call out — with substitutes presents an even greater challenge.

When schools opened in August for the new year, Miami-Dade schools reported about 150 instructional personnel vacancies — 40 in special education; 55 in math, reading and science; and another 55 spread out across other specializations. Moreover, the district was short more than 100 drivers from what should have been 1,200 bus operators covering 860 routes, officials at the time said.

In Broward schools, there were 1,151 school bus driver positions and a vacancy of 200 operators at the start of the year, officials there said.

“Our substitute pool is shallow,” Cartwright said. For one, a number of substitutes the district relied on simply stopped filling in when the pandemic began, as some were older and didn’t want to risk getting sick, while others may have been able to go without the additional income, she said.

Of the more than 1,700 teachers who were out Tuesday in Broward, for example, just 31.4% were filled by a substitute, Cartwright said. The other vacancies were filled with school- or district-based personnel who aren’t assigned to a classroom. School-based personnel are officials’ first choice after substitutes, she said.

In Miami, just 70 individuals who ordinarily are not assigned classroom duties were in the classroom, Carvalho said. “It’s a reasonably small number, which tells me the substitute teacher capacity is actually pretty strong,” he said.

For United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats, however, any disruption — be it a substitute or a school official — is concerning.

“The shortage is there (and) impacts the quality and caliber of education our children are receiving,” Hernandez-Mats said. “This is certainly something that impacts not just quality of education but quality of life.”

As omicron spreads, mitigation strategies change

Days before students returned to school Monday, Miami-Dade and Broward schools amended their face-mask policies.

Carvalho on Thursday announced all district staff, including teachers, would have to wear a mask, along with visitors to a school. The rule change did not apply to students. One day later, the Broward County School Board stopped short of requiring masks for teachers and staff, but required visitors and vendors wear masks when visiting schools.

The changes came after South Florida broke single-day COVID numbers records.

On Monday, 42 students and 98 employees tested positive for COVID-19 in Broward County, according to its COVID dashboard. On Tuesday, it was two students and seven employees. No cases were reported in Miami-Dade on Monday or Tuesday, according to its dashboard.

This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 7:21 PM.