Most substitute teachers only sub for a day or two. But for Trisha Kellenbarger’s college psychology class, it’s for the whole semester. 

“It’s been pretty bad without one and sad because we can’t get the college credit without the college in person, only online,” senior Kela Schnelle said.

Kellenbarger, who was teaching the college psychology class, initially told the students that she would be absent for the first two weeks of school. However, she hasn’t been back. 

“We think she’s having health concerns,” senior Cooper Chadwick said. “No one has seen or heard from her. It’ll be weird never getting to meet your psych teacher but I hope she’s doing OK.”

For principal Tim Hamblin, it has been stressful finding a replacement, as he wants students to get what they need from the class.

“The process to provide coverage for Mrs. Kellenbarger’s class has been rather exhausting,” he wrote in an email to students.“Many steps and many people have been involved in doing all that can be done to both keep her classes running and to continue to provide the opportunity to earn the college credit for those students that wish to pursue it.”

For Hamblin, though, this isn’t his first rodeo. 

“Fortunately situations like this do not happen that often though it seems that they have here recently,” he said. “As you may or may not recall, we were faced with a similar situation about this time last year when Mr. (Pat) Paske, DHS science teacher, unexpectedly passed away last fall.  These situations are never easy and they require some very out of the box thinking, but all of the efforts remain focused on getting kids what they need in the classes.”

For students right now, class has no structure.

“The class structure basically is the sub tells us what we’re doing for the day and then the college kids do their stuff online,” Schnelle said. 

In the spring, more students are enrolled for college psychology, a problem Hamblin is ready to face. “At this time I have no information on Ms. Kellenbarger’s status or her return,” he said. “With that being the case, I am planning and working on solutions to provide coverage for her classes this spring semester.”