Parents and teachers tell Decatur SD 61 board substitute shortages and lack of accountability are harming students

At the March 4 meeting of the Decatur Public School District 61 Board of Education, parents and teachers urged the board to address chronic substitute-teacher shortages and what they described as a widening lack of academic accountability.

The concerns came during the public participation portion of the meeting, where members of the public are allowed three minutes to speak and board members do not respond. "Since I was here last, my name is Abby Steele. My daughter has now spent more than the equivalent of the academic month of December in a split amongst other classrooms," said Abby Steele, a licensed social worker and parent. Steele said students sometimes spend entire days in non-classroom spaces such as the music room and estimated the district was incurring substantial daily costs when classes are split to cover absent teachers. "If one class is split amongst four teachers, that is roughly $600 a day...that's $36,000 a week that our district is spending on this," she said, attributing the calculation to her own estimate.

Middle school teacher Colleen Vitengruber said teachers are overwhelmed by the practice of passing students to the next grade regardless of readiness. "At least two-thirds of my middle school students are not at grade level," Vitengruber said. She said retention requests by teachers repeatedly are denied even when teachers submit time-consuming retention packets. "We're passing them on when they've literally done nothing. Where is the accountability?"

Rebecca Cordova, a Decatur native, DPS educator and parent, described how contract language affects buildings that serve pre-K through eighth grade. Under current contract rules, she said, extra pay to teachers who cover split classes must be offered equally to every certified teacher, which results in students being reassigned daily without regard to appropriate grouping. "For us in buildings like ours, when a sub cannot be found, substitutes are split up between multiple classrooms...this has major impacts for students of teachers with long term absences," she said, and asked the board to amend contract language with union leaders and stakeholders.

Speakers said the shortage of substitutes forces regular teachers to absorb additional students and planning-period duties. They urged the district to prioritize hiring and retention, to create exceptions in contract language for long-term absences, and to reinstate academic accountability so students are promoted only when prepared.

The board did not respond during public comment; the meeting chair noted comments would be referred to administration for follow-up.