The Spanish department is about to undergo a transition as two teachers are temporarily replaced by two long term substitutes as Spanish teachers. Amanda Bainbridge is already on maternity leave just having delivered a baby boy on Jan. 29 with Lindsey Bowen also about to go on maternity leave. While there’s no guarantee what type of substitute may fill in for a teacher on a given day, the long term Spanish substitutes have gone through a different process than that of a daily sub.

“Long term substitutes are chosen the same way that the teachers are chosen,” Bainbridge said. “They are interviewed and just like a regular candidate would be interviewed. They go through that process and then we decide what would be best for the school and the team.”

Although, students will have to adapt to the long term substitute, the Spanish department won’t have to adjust much due to the long term substitutes being aware of the daily routine.

“A teacher that is about to go on leave, we like for them to leave daily plans and things like that for their long term substitute,” assistant principal Kristen Sommers said. “However sometimes since the team of teachers meet to plan together, that substitute will just kind of become part of that team and will plan with that team in the teacher’s place. So sometimes there’s more and sometimes there’s less when a teacher leaves depending on how the team planning goes.”

Although, the long term Spanish substitutes will have a lot of adapting, adjusting, and planning to do, the teachers on maternity leave will have a lot of weight off their shoulders.

“When a teacher is on leave for a long time, they really don’t have any responsibilities because, by law, they can’t work,” Sommers said. “So they don’t have any responsibilities while they are gone and all of those transfer over to the substitute to be able to input grades, do all of that kind of stuff, take attendance, make parent contact and the other teachers within that team or in that department and the department head of the instructional coach will help out with that.”

Although the teachers on maternity leave will have weight off their shoulders when they leave, the stress still builds up in preparation for the long term substitute.

“At this point I am having to put in a great deal of time to get everything prepared for the long term sub,” Spanish teacher Lindsey Bowen said. “On a Saturday, I brought my 2 children up to school with me so that I could make all the copies and organize daily folders for my school. We were at the school for about 7 hours. I also come up to school at 7 a.m. two-three days a week to work before anyone gets to school.”

Although, there is a lot of communication going on within the Spanish department in preparation for the long term substitutes, the regular classroom teachers will be in charge with communication to their student’s parents about the long term substitute.

“It’s really up to the teacher to communicate with parents,” Sommers said. “They’re the ones that have the relationships with the students and with a lot of the parents to be able to let the parents know that they will be out for an extended period of time, who their substitute will be, and what form of communication should take place while they’re out on leave.”