Worried about mental health of teachers

Superintendents in Southeast Iowa are concerned about the additional hours their teachers are putting into lessons to reach both online and in-person students.

Van Buren County Community School District Superintendent Jeremy Hissem said many of his teachers are putting in two to four extra hours each day to serve the 12.5 percent of students attending online classes in addition to the rest attending in-person.

Pekin Community School Superintendent Dave Harper said the same thing, saying that he knows several teachers working three to four additional hours in the evening to make sure they are prepared for the next day.

'I asked the teachers to be out of the building by 7 p.m. so the janitors can disinfect all of the rooms,” he said. 'A lot of them go home and work additional time.”

Teachers in the Highland school district in Washington County have done more work at home this year than before.

Middle school social studies teacher Jayme Kallaus and high school business and computer teacher Clint Jones are leaders of the Highland Education Association. Throughout the year, the group has been working with the teachers to address questions while sending out surveys to anonymously gauge how teacher are feeling.

Teachers at Highland have a set salary for the year. Kallaus said teachers understand there will always be a certain level of overtime they have to do in order to make sure all the lessons and materials are prepared.

When the school was in the hybrid model, teachers had to teach in class and prepare lessons for the students at home.

Kallaus said all the teachers felt the pressure of overtime, but it hit the younger grades harder.

Returning 100 percent in-person has only slightly eased the workload.

'As long as we have the COVID situation, there will always be that pressure,” Kallaus said.

The possibility of quarantining from exposure both in school and out of school is a challenge for teachers.

The virtual learning last year has created a learning curve for some students, causing teachers to put more work into creating 'scaffolding” to help students catch up.

While the teachers are having to do more work, Kallaus said there has been more communication in the school than ever before.

'As teachers, we're always looking for feedback and help,” Kallaus said.

Even though no one has all the answers, the teachers have started to team up to work out problems.

The situation is no different at Cardinal Community School District, where Superintendent Joel Pedersen said the problem is especially acute at the elementary level.

Students that age do not use the same online platform as the older kids, and they are not as proficient at working independently, Pedersen said.

'Teachers are teaching all day in-person and then spending all night teaching to online learners,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen said he was worried about teacher burnout even before the pandemic because of all the trauma kids bring to class with them, which rubs off on teachers.

'Add the pandemic, and I am worried about the mental health of my teachers,” he said. 'Educator prep programs are declining. There are less people selecting educational careers, and I can't blame them.”

Harper said he is worried about teacher burnout and that he would not be surprised if the district loses staff because of the additional COVID requirements.

The school districts have implemented a number of policies they hope will save teachers from exhaustion. Hissem said Van Buren has adjusted the school calendar so that elementary teachers can devote Wednesdays to professional development and planning.

'Having time for teachers to collaborate in grade level groups has seemed to be helpful to the majority of our teachers,” Hissem said.

Harper said Pekin will have its online secondary students transition to a new platform called Edmentum, a virtual school where the students will complete their coursework. Instead of providing the instruction themselves, Pekin teachers will monitor the students' progress on this platform, which meets graduation requirements.

Pedersen said Cardinal has a substitute teacher who floats from classroom to classroom to give the school's virtual teachers an extra 90 minutes of planning. The district is giving a virtual teaching stipend to teachers working extra hours, too.

'This is not perfect, but it helps with stress,” Pedersen said.