MACON, Ga. — School districts across the country are seeing a shortage of substitute teachers largely because of the pandemic.
"Many substitutes didn't want to work in the COVID environment, so that made it more difficult to get substitutes to commit," Bibb Schools' Assistant Superintendent Mack Bullard said.
Bullard says Bibb Schools is dealing with a national shortage of substitute teachers.
"Right now 400 subs, it's about one sub for every 2 1/2 teachers that we have, if we can get it up to 800 that we can recruit, man that'll be powerful. But we know in order to do that there's got to be a lot more man power," Bullard said.
The school board approved a $2 million contract to partner with a company called Kelly Education to help hire subs.
"We work with school districts across the country, across the state and across the country in helping them with their temporary talent needs, in many cases that starts with substitute teachers," Kelly Education Regional Vice President Bobby Schorr said.
"We're about 75% fill rate any given day, in our schools for substitutes picking up jobs. We want to get it into the 90%," Bullard said.
Bibb subs with some college education can make between $12-$15 an hour. With the Kelly Education partnership, they now have benefits options.
"Now the subs will have an opportunity to choose health, medical, dental, life insurance, 401K I mean we could just simply not offer that to them," Bullard said.
"While that's a part of what we get to offer, there's so many more benefits to it. It is extremely rewarding work. It's been a way for people to change careers and get their foot in the door," Schorr said.
"I know how important it is to me and my family, having those benefits in place, so I know how important it is to other men and women who have families as well," Bullard said.
Of the 400 current subs they have, 120 are long-term subs.
Bullard says they are looking to fill 15 more long term substitute positions right now.
For more information you can visit the Bibb County Schools' website.