LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- Hundreds of Jefferson County Public School teachers were out of their classrooms on Friday. Several hundred called in sick and a few hundred more were out attending a professional development conference.
Central High School was one of the hardest-hit schools. Four teachers there had scheduled absences, while nine others took sick days.
School secretary Jeanne Moody had to scramble to cover all of the empty classrooms on Friday.
"We had a total of 13 teachers out," says Moody
And no one will blame her if she's living up to her last name today.
She says, "When I run the report off when I come in at 6:30 and I see my report with 13 teachers who have called in for subs...and the report shows 9 not having a sub."
That's how Moody's day started. So it's easy to understand why she was a little worried.
She says, "That is stressful when those jobs are open and I know school starts at 7:40 and there's not an adult substitute in the room."
But instead of panicking, Moody came up with a game plan to cover the empty classrooms.
"So I made the best that I could do. I made a chart; we have four periods a day here at Central."
Moody used a chart and got teachers to skip their planning periods.
She says, "The teachers that had a planning for which ever period, I called them and asked them if they could help me out by carrying over into another classroom. "And this is the plan that I used to juggle and get other teachers in the room to help with teaching today."
And this was not just a Central High School problem; across the street, Coleridge Taylor Elementary School was dealing with the same issue. In fact, it was district wide.
JCPS officials would not comment on camera but did tell us the large number of absences were the result of sick and personal days and teachers attending a professional development conference.
"It's like doing a rubiks cube; I got it done," says Moody.
And Moody says getting it done was made a little easier with help from all of her teachers, even the ones who were out today.
"The teachers are very good about getting their plans and so there are plans in the room and so there's always something for the substitutes to follow."
JCPS officials would not comment on camera about the absences, but tell WDRB News this was not that unusual with it being flu season and with a professional development conference in town.
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