We’ve all felt joy from hearing the news about having a substitute teacher. But, for North Penn High School assistant principal Mrs. Amy Linn, the behind the scenes process of assigning substitute teachers is far from joyous. 

With the increased number of absences after winter break, and the increased numbers of Covid cases that were prevalent each day, Linn has had a busy schedule this school year. Part of her responsibilities as the longest tenured assistant principal at North Penn High School include handling the process of selecting substitute teachers. 

The process can be a challenging one.. For day to day substitute teachers, North Penn uses a program that potential teachers can monitor to view class availability. As for long term substitute teachers, the process is more extensive. 

“They go through the whole interview process. After we advertise, we put together an interview team and they go through two rounds of interviews,” Linn explained.

The selection of long-term substitute teachers is around a month long process. After posting the job, screening the applicants tends to take around two weeks. While screening the applicants, Linn is also putting together an interview team and arranging for them to come in to interview for their first round. 

“After having them interview for the first round, you then have them come back for the second round. Afterwards, you offer the job. It tends to be around a 4 to 5 week process,” Linn said. 

As things have calmed down in recent months regarding Covid and absences, Linn can finally gain a breath of fresh air. 

“Covid situations have definitely settled down in the last few weeks. Up until the first week after winter break, I could spend a good part of my day dealing with Covid issues. I oversee the assurance testing that our staff do, which is two days a week. Then, it was following up with teachers who were absent and needed to come in on time, or teachers that were symptomatic. Then, add in a whole layer of contact tracing for our students. As for day to day, things have really settled down compared to where things were from September until December. We could have anywhere up to 12 teachers out without a substitute. So, that became a very different look on how to manage the building,” Linn stated.

Similar to many students and North Penn families, Linn has considered the idea of the school closing and gained her own opinion on the subject. 

“There were times where I had hoped we would close the school because of the high absent count. I think the most absences we had was 45 to 50 people out, and close to 22 people without substitutes,”

While she admits it may have been easier to close during the height of absences, Linn more so appreciates the effort North Penn put forth in keeping the doors open. 

“We (North Penn High School) pride ourselves in staying open. It would be a mad rush in the morning to get things accomplished to keep us open. I was exhausted. Also due to the fact that my family had gotten Covid that week. I was monitoring myself and my family as we were dealing with increasing numbers of staff and students with Covid. But, we plowed through it. We took hours a day to prepare for the next day, and we made it work because we wanted the kids in school,” Linn stated. 

Luckily for Linn, North Penn’s online teaching aid, Canvas has been a huge help. Prior to North Penn’s usage of Canvas, many substitute teachers needed to be assigned to their content courses.

“We have something known as guest teachers. Pre-Covid our substitutes were all certified teachers, and we tried to put them in their content area so lesson plans could still go on. Now with Canvas and the fact that teachers can post their lessons to Canvas, we brought on guest teachers. This helped immensely with our shortage of substitutes,” Linn explained. 

Finally, with Covid cases calming down over the past few months, Mrs. Linn can truly say North Penn made it through.

“It has been a challenging two years, but we have more and more subs that are signing on board with the district..II feel like we’re really able to breathe now,” Linn concluded.