After a sudden leave of absence from the school’s only Spanish teacher Glenda Hurtado and math teacher Anna Felix, students were left with substitutes and wondering when their teachers would return.

“I was kind of disappointed, it means that we were gonna have subs so it means subs don’t teach and we’re gonna be behind on work,” sophomore Camille Acevedo said.

Hurtado has been at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School for 10 years. On Sept. 20, she was hit in the face while trying to stop a fight between two seniors during her period six class.

“Well, I mean, with (Hurtado) gone we can’t continue our lesson plan,” sophomore Blanca Osorio said. “I was absent (the) day we had to do presentations so I can’t do my presentation anymore.”

Long-term substitute Charity Price has been filling in for Hurtado since September. Price intends to get all of the classes back on the intended path both teachers had planned.

In order to complete this task, all students taking Spanish 1, 2 and 3 have been set up with an online learning program, “Edgenuity.” The program gives daily lessons that the students must complete at home while Price does traditional lessons using the textbook in class.

“Honestly for a sub, she’s doing a pretty good job,” Osorio said. “I have confidence in her.”

According to Price, all students’ grades at the end of the semester will reflect the work completed from when Hurtado was present, any homework and tests given out since her departure and the scores students receive on the daily lessons from Edgenuity.

“(Edgenuity is) mostly review to me, but it’s helpful as well,” junior Hannah Tateel said. “I still prefer the textbooks though.”

There have not been any updates regarding when Hurtado is set to come back, nor does Principal Deb Smith have an idea when this will happen. However, parents are aware of the teacher’s absence. Price sends out emails to both students and guardians via Jupiter Ed on class updates. Until the school receives further notice on Hurtado’s return, Price has been scheduled to take over for the rest of the semester.

“My plan right now is to make the curriculum interesting and understandable,” Price said.  

Felix has been a teacher at DPMHS since 2014 and was on a leave starting Oct. 11. She returned to school on Dec. 5.

“I was glad to know she was okay and that we could finally start learning again but it’s going to be hard cramming right before finals,” Acevedo said.

In order to get students on track, long-term substitute Martin Rivera taught upcoming lessons from the textbook for both Precalculus and Algebra 2, while also reviewing previous subjects and testing students’ skills on them.

“What I felt like I could do is teach you guys what you’ve missed and improve on the foundation of what was suppose to be learned previously,” Rivera said.

It is unknown whether the work completed during Felix’s absence will be counted into students’ grades.  

“I haven’t seen any of the substitutes grades,” Felix said. “He didn’t leave anything. I have prepared a practice test for (students) this week and I might change some of the questions depending on how prepared they are.”