Staff shortages were the undercurrent of a special Washington Community School Board meeting held this week.

Superintendent Willie Stone requested that the board meet Wednesday to approve four personnel resignations so that they can begin the hiring process as soon as possible. Stone mentioned that one of the four resignations is immediate while the others are effective at the end of the school year. The board also discussed having early dismissals for every Friday during the next school year. Since the pandemic the school board has taken action about every semester to add early outs in order to give staff additional prep time, as Stone emphasized how stretched the staff has been, “Today we had 37 vacancies, eight of those did not need a sub, 14 positions are filled, and 15 are the positions are unfilled. So we had to fill within and it was actually even more the day before I think we had 48 vacancies, 18 unfilled, 18 filled, and 12 that did not need a sub. So we have people going above and beyond a lot using their prep time, using their break time to be able to work. And I think this is our ability to give them some time to get the things done that they need to get done.”

The board did not take action on the issue, as Stone said he wanted to bring this up now so they can approve it before the fall of 2022 to give parents enough notice, and he recommended that they change the dismissal time from 1:10 to 1:20 p.m. He commented that this schedule could change if the district sees an increase in available substitute teachers or if the pandemic subsides, which he said has kept substitutes from working in the schools.