PERRYSBURG – COVID vacancies, in a wide variety of jobs, are rampant on a daily basis at Perrysburg Schools.

During the Jan. 19 school board meeting Superintendent Tom Hosler spoke about the national staffing crisis, which has not passed by Perrysburg Schools.

“Daily, we are scrambling to piece together a staffing plan to operate our schools and buses,” Hosler said.

He wanted to note the extent of the impact, in advance of today’s job fair.

The district is looking for teacher, monitor, food service, bus driver, paraprofessional and custodian substitutes, as well as homebound instructors and paraprofessionals.

He stressed that there is no need to sign up for the job fair. Stop by the Commodore Building Cafeteria, 140 E. Indiana Ave., from 3-5 p.m. The district is providing help in filling out employment applications, but the applications may be completed in advance. They are available online, at www.perrysburgschools.net under the Employment tab.

The current substitute teacher list has 171, but they need at least 180, Hosler said.

“Many have expressed hesitation about coming into our schools during surges of COVID-19,” he said. “Absences have increased due to COVID-19 and just because a substitute is on our list does not mean they work each day.”

Hosler praised the work that staff have done.

“Thus far we have been successful at keeping students in school, which is due to the flexibility and willingness of our employees to go the extra mile.”

He specifically thanked Aricca Sorg, the central office receptionist, who starts work on the employee absence software before 4 a.m.

Using Jan. 13 as an example, Hosler said that the district had 121 vacancies; 46 did not need to be filled. At the end of the day, an additional 30 unfilled positions went unfilled.

District wide, the week of Jan 10-16 had the highest number of cases for the year. There were 127 positive cases, including 19 were staff members.