Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools is showing thanks for a particular group of people who have kept students in school.

Amid the shortages in substitute teachers, Deputy Superintendent Vincent Behm says another group has made sure students don't have to go back to learning from home.

"When we have substitute teacher shortages, we have people come in for casual positions to help cover off classrooms so that our students have someone there to supervise, monitor, and hand out work that the classroom teacher has left behind."

Those people are non-certified classroom supervisors (NCCS,) who CTR credits as one of the many groups of people who helped make in-person learning possible over the last year.

NCCS personnel include support staff who have been stepping out of their regular roles on occasion, as well as employees who act solely as NCCS'.

Since they are not teachers, the supervisors do not provide instruction or assessment for students, but rather work to maintain the learning environment.

Prior to the pandemic, they were largely used in more remote communities where substitute teachers aren't always readily available.

Over the course of the pandemic though, they've been utilized much more prominently.

"As of late, it has greatly helped in the pandemic to make sure that we've been able to keep our schools operational, to make sure we have enough staff and can welcome our students to school each and every day without the need to have them work at home or online because of substitute teacher shortages," says Behm.

While substitute teachers are always preferred, they've frequently been in short supply, leading CTR to lean on NCCS' during those occasions.

Without the supervisors, Behm says the burden would fall on teachers who are already managing classes of their own.

"We would need between four and eight teachers to give up their prep time, between 40 and 80 minutes of their day, which greatly interrupts their planning, correcting, and getting ready for their own classes. It's a significant protection of our administrator and teacher time."

Superintendent Dr. Scott Morrison echoed the sentiment.

"That program has been a Godsend. We are down to minuscule levels of unfilled substitute teacher positions across the system. I just did those stats today and across the whole division and I think today we had two unfilled positions in our 17 schools. I'm proud of the work we did to make sure we had adults in front of kids and to keep kids learning. Our focus this year is 'we're staying in school.'"