Miami-Dade Schools Scramble To Address Teacher Shortage Due To COVID-19 – CBS Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho says the school system is scrambling to cope with the toll that COVID-19 is taking on teachers.

He told CBS4’s Peter D’Oench that the problems were expected after the Christmas break and he said officials are calling in more substitute teachers.

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He said that officials were reaching out to many people with educational certificates in order to fill the void left by so many calling in sick, quite possibly as a result of the surge in coronavirus cases.

“What I can tell you is that we were prepared for this,” he said. Carvalho said some 1,700 teachers called in sick on Tuesday and he expected that number to go down by the end of the week.

“Obviously, we anticipated this because of how contagious the virus is and how quickly it can spread,” he said.

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Officials said 2,100 instructional personnel were out sick on Monday compared with 1,333 teachers who were out sick last year on the Monday after the Christmas break.

Carvalho said he was not sure how many of the sick teachers were out because of the Omicron variant.

Carvalho spoke to CBS4 after teaching a class at Miami Jackson Senior High School, where he started his career in 1990 as a physics, chemistry, and calculus teacher.

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He also said he was impressed by the number of students voluntarily wearing facial coverings which is optional for students.