BROOMFIELD, Colo — Boulder Valley School District Superintendent Dr. Rob Anderson looks to hire 250 classroom monitors to serve as backup to teachers, substitutes to help keep buildings open when students can return for in-person learning.
Anderson wants to make sure there is enough staff to keep students learning in-person inside school buildings. He wants BVSD to hire classroom monitors to serve as a backup to substitutes and teachers.
"We have teachers that are being quarantined that are willing and able to continue to teach virtually, but they just can't be there in person with the kids," Anderson said.
"I think that like most districts on the front range, we struggled in getting substitute teachers," Dr. Anderson said.
Bringing back kids to fill the halls and to fill the classrooms is all Kim Moroze wants when she thinks about her first-grade students at Emerald Elementary School in Broomfield.
"When I drive up to an empty parking lot with an empty playground with no students at the doors, it makes my heart so sad," Moroze said.
She is longing for the days when it's safe to have her 21 students in the building once more. "We just worry about so many things," Moroze said.
The classroom monitors would supervise in-person so teachers can stay home and still run their classes. But, they would not need to execute lesson plans like substitute teachers do.
"The classroom monitors would be there to help with technology, help assist students," Anderson said.
Moroze said teachers would welcome the help if it means they can stay connected to their students.
"Substitutes are valuable and will continue to be valuable, but on top of it having another layer of monitors would just be another insurance that we could keep schools in-person," Moroze said.
Anderson is hoping to find 250 parents or former teachers, or people who just need work to step forward and help the school district.
"We also hope to tap into our labor market where some folks may be struggling, may have been laid off, may have been furloughed," Anderson said.
Classroom monitors would be trained and have to pass a background check. Their positions are being paid for by the general fund.
Moroze hopes the employee pool can be filled with classroom monitors so schools can remain filled with students -- when it's safe.
"If we can get kids back in-person, I just know that everybody will be better off," Moroze said.
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