By John Dobberstein, Editor
City of Broken Arrow employees may soon be called on to help fill the gaping void in staffing at Broken Arrow Public Schools to help get students back into classrooms for in-person learning.
The Broken Arrow City Council will be asked to vote Tuesday on a resolution authorizing City Manager Michael Spurgeon to enter into a “mutual aid agreement” with BAPS. It would allow city employees to volunteer temporarily to fill open staff positions in the school district.
The city workers would still receive their regular pay while volunteering and Spurgeon would draft rules for their participation in the volunteer staffing plan.
BAPS notified the city on Jan. 12 that a significant number of teachers and support staff were reporting positive COVID-19 test results.
Officials from the school district and city government met that day “to discuss how the city could help with the current situation, specifically how city employees could temporarily fill open staff positions to maintain in-person education.”
The resolution being voted on says the city council and administration “believe in-person instructional experience is critical to the high-quality teaching and learning the community expects from the Broken Arrow School District
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Friday’s decision to go with virtual learning “weighs heavily on district leaders because they know it’s best for students to have in-person learning and supports student needs in regard to social and emotional learning. Additionally, they understand the impact it has on our working parents,” the resolution says.
The city says “Title 11, Section 22-159-Municipal Support of Local Public Schools” authorizes the City of Broken Arrow to “support any public school system located in whole or part within the corporate limits…including without limitations through the expenditure of municipal revenue for the construction or improvement of public school facilities.”
The resolution also says the Oklahoma Attorney General “recognizes the general purpose of the Municipal Support of Local Public Schools statute is to allow municipalities the option to support public school systems located within a City’s municipal boundary, including support by spending City funds to pay for teachers’ salaries.”
On Friday afternoon, BAPS Supt. Chuck Perry said the district had 710 employees absent for illness and other various reasons. “This is an all-time high number not previously seen in our district,” he said.
Perry said school leaders discussed utilizing Education Service Center and Central on Main staff and administrators to substitute where needed. “Even this does not give us enough coverage to be in-person,” he said.
Below are some of the reasons Perry cited for BAPS going virtual next week:
- A high absentee number would be somewhere around 250 employees, which would put a strain on district resources to efficiently provide quality instruction, transportation and child nutrition services to our students.
- On Monday, we were operating with 406 absences, and it has steadily climbed each day. We are aware that many absences are due to seasonal illnesses, including the flu, that we have traditionally dealt with for decades.
- In November, our average number for substitute teachers was 109. Yesterday, with only eight sites open, we needed 139 substitute teachers. Our fill rate was 29.5%, which left 98 classrooms unfilled. This causes our teachers to double and triple-cover classrooms throughout the day. Along with the physical and emotional toll on teachers to manage that many students, quality instruction is difficult to achieve.
- With our child nutrition department, 31 employees were absent in addition to the 39 open positions already present due to the challenge of staffing in today’s employment climate.
- The transportation department had 32 absences, which would make it nearly impossible to effectively run routes if all sites would have been in-person.
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