The new wave of COVID-19 cases at Naperville Central is raising logistical and health concerns for administrators, teachers and students at the beginning of 2022. The surge, caused in large part by the highly contagious Omicron variant, has seen record numbers of teachers absent at Central. 

The influx comes at the conclusion of winter break. After spending weeks in close-contact with family members and traveling abroad, rates of COVID-19 transmission skyrocketed. 

“I think it was a total of 25 teachers out today,” said Carrie McFadden, Assistant Principal for Operations, on Jan. 10. “25 people out on a day is not that unusual. 25 people out for five to ten days is unusual.” 

With so many teachers absent, the school must turn to full-time substitute teachers and building substitutes to fill in. However, McFadden said that Central is facing a sub shortage too. 

“We had eight teachers today that did not have subs,” she said that same day.

This sub-shortage has been ongoing for months. In addition to regular subs getting COVID-19 and having to quarantine, new subs are de-incentivized from taking subbing positions in the district due to COVID-19 risk in the classroom and vaccine mandates. In response, District 203 implemented new measures to re-incentivize subs in October 2021. Subs will receive an extra $100 after ten days of work. 

Despite these measures, the supply of substitute teachers remains a problem. Thus far into the new semester, classes without full-time subs have been reporting to the Little Theatre and engaging with classroom material under the supervision of building subs. Teachers are to use and update Canvas by 7:45 a.m, McFadden said. 

“I’ll do Screencastify videos and different worksheets and stuff for the students to do, where they’re really doing more independent learning,” business teacher Brad Neubauer said. 

Providing students with independent material proved easier due to last year’s remote learning. 

“It wasn’t the most difficult thing for me to adapt my instruction to being out of the classroom just because I had so many resources available from last year’s remote teaching,” biology teacher Amy Hastings said. 

Both Neubauer and Hastings missed the first few days of the new semester due to a COVID-19 diagnosis during winter break. On days with no substitute, their classes reported to the Little Theatre. 

“It works for a few days, but not long term,” Neubauer said. “Teachers are not blind to the fact that there’s not much work getting done. I’d much rather have some type of sub in my classroom when I’m not here.” 

District 203 adopted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s five-day quarantine guideline in early January. Whenever a teacher has symptoms, they’re to contact Chief Human Resources Officer Bob Ross. An email goes out to the teacher clarifying when it’s okay for them to return. 

In recent weeks, District 203’s decision to remain in-person amidst the surge in COVID-19 cases and teacher absenteeism has drawn criticism. 

“I think the district is doing the best they can,” Hastings said. “You’re not going to make everyone happy no matter what you do. You go remote, people will be upset; you don’t go remote, people are going to be upset; it’s a double edged sword.”