Because of a shortage of teachers, substitutes have been placed in classes long term. 

Then there’s College Psychology, where the students do all the work online because there isn’t a teacher in the building certified to teach it at the college level.

“It starts simply with, there are just not many teachers. A lot of teachers got out of the teaching profession,” principal Tim Hamblin said. “Far less young people are choosing to go into it. So there is a teacher shortage.”

The reason many are turning away from teaching now? Social standards.

“I believe that the ridicule, the scrutiny, the harassment in some situations, from parents, and administrators, or school boards, all of those things, I think contribute to people reassessing what it is they’re going to do,” Hamblin said.

Some substitutes became accustomed to DHS quickly.

“I started out as just a sub last year,” substitute teacher Tanai Brumbelow said. “So I was throughout the building and I subbed pretty much every single day. And then they asked me to be a long-term sub in a classroom for this year.”

Subs like Brumbelow are expected to teach the class as if they were a full-time teacher.

“Some of them I do (create lesson plans), yes,” Brumbelow said. “So I’ll take bits and pieces from other teachers, him or the internet or whatever we’re doing out of the book. Basically, we have a guideline to follow, the curriculum to follow and then I’ll look at that and then kind of put something together that my students can do. Some of them I pulled directly from a lesson plan that he has, or some of them I will come up with myself.”

In order to find substitute teachers on the fly, Hamblin works with every possible outlet. 

“Fortunately, (sub coordinator Sharon) Broussard at the district level is really good at visiting with the new substitutes that join our district and learning about ones that might be interested in a long-term situation if they ever come up,” he said.

It has worked out for DHS.

“I knew their abilities there to manage the classroom and student behaviors and those things,” Hamblin said. “So I would be really nervous if it’s just a random person I’ve never met that the district sends over and they become a long term sub … I think we’re in better shape with these four people than we could have been.”