NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- When your child's teacher calls in sick, you expect a substitute will cover the class.
But a NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that Metro students are showing up day after day to classrooms with no teacher or substitute.
It has forced other teachers, reading specialists, even principals to basically babysit entire classrooms for the day
An internal Metro Schools email describes "record-setting" unfilled substitute teaching positions this year.
Just last Monday, more than 280 Metro classrooms had no teacher -- and no substitute.
"That's concerning to us," said Susan Thompson, Chief Human Capital Officer for Metro Schools. "That's an alert. That's a red flag. We've got something here we need to investigate and get fixed."
Metro school officials admit it's not acceptable that hundreds of classrooms had no teacher on a regular basis last month, and they insist the district is scrambling to correct the problem.
The head of the Metro Nashville Education Association said schools often don't realize there is no substitute until the morning a teacher is absent.
"The decisions on how to deal with the situation are made at the last minute because that's when you find out about about it," MNEA President Stephen Henry said.
"For the student, no teaching is happening so no learning is happening -- and that's not acceptable," Henry added.
Numbers from October obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates reveal that on Friday, October 24, 744 Metro teachers were out of class, but 250 of those classrooms had no sub at all.
Two hundred and eighty-six classes had no sub last Monday and, on Tuesday, 245 classrooms had no sub.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Metro Schools' top human resources official, "What do you think when you see that number of classrooms unfilled?"
Susan Thompson responded, "What do I think? I think, oh my goodness, we have an issue."
Thompson said the problem has been at its worst in October. She said the district switched phone systems on the first day of the month.
Thompson said the old phone system automatically called registered substitutes to alert them of open classrooms, but the new system has not worked properly.
"There were busy signals and we were getting calls that subs couldn't pick up, that nobody was answering the sub line," Thompson said.
She said the district is going back to the old phone system and hopes that will solve the problem.
But an internal email obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates revealed district concerns even before October 1.
It discussed a "substitute shortage."
In fact, an HR manager wrote, "this school year we are experiencing record-setting vacancies and unfilled positions daily."
MNEA's president blamed part of the problem on the district's reorganization, which did away with a department focused on subs.
"There was a department that would oversee the assignment of substitutes and training of substitutes," Henry said.
Thompson said the district re-organized its human resources division, but claims employees are still focused on substitutes.
She said the district has "targeted" a recruiter to find more qualified subs and is trying to reduce the number of teacher absences.
Last October, the district filled more than 90 percent of all teacher vacancies with a sub.
This year, it is not uncommon to fill just over 60 percent.
