Administration has hired long term substitute teachers to fill in teaching positions in Culinary, Nursing, and special education.

Long term substitutes currently fill three teaching positions as administration undergoes through the hiring process.

“It’s very upsetting when you wind up with last-minute people you still have to hire, because you know there’s going to be a problem getting them through, even if you find the people. They’ve got to go through the whole vetting process with the state and licensure and then through CCSD’s processes,” Principal Donna Levy said. “We try not to let that happen this year, but we wounded up with three.

Despite not having permanently hired teachers in these subject areas, program curricula are still being taught.

“We have long-term subs. Both of them in the culinary and in the health occupations, both of these people are actually qualified to be teachers,” Levy said. “However, they have substitute licensing right now, and until they can get full-fledged licensing, we couldn’t consider hiring them.”

Substitute teachers filling in positions such as Culinary have resources available to effectively teach the class.

“For the most part, Chef Homan and Chef Bakke are helping the guest teacher out,” Assistant Principal Cameron Roehm said. “The big resource is just having those peers right next door to help [the substitute] out.”

When administration was in the process to temporarily fill in the positions, they made an effort to find someone who has background experience in the subject they are filling.

“The one that we’re missing right now is our ELA sub,”  Assistant Principal Adonai John-Shiman said. “When we were looking for substitutes, we made sure to find someone that did have a [special education] background, so that helps.”

Teachers have had difficulty acquiring their licenses from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, in which it is responsible for background checks for all applicants.

“The state of Nevada got hacked, and everything was down,” Levy said. “That means that teachers can’t get their teaching licenses because they can’t get background checked. We got notification, a couple weeks back, that the background check process was suspended indefinitely.”

Although the difficulty in hiring teachers continues, student learning remains unaffected.

“Kids are in there grinding, they are in there learning, they’re having fun,” Assistant Principal Eric Gant said. “It’s always trickier with the CTE’s, though, because these are real professionals who are not necessarily teachers who come in and fill [the position].”