"Hola" is the salutation that parents, students and various employees from Edgecombe County Public Schools would like to greet a new Spanish teacher with at Tarboro High School.

Unfortunately, it is seven weeks later and those at ECPS have had little luck at finding a person to fill the void. They are saying the job is "abierto"– still open.

When Patsy Miller, a veteran of nearly two decades, returned to the classroom at fall semester's onset as a part-time school Spanish instructor, THS staff and students were the beneficiaries of her curriculum layout and implementation mastery.

"As a teacher, she's quite impressive. She brings the most out of her students," said Tarboro High Principal Dr. Lisa Cooke.

But soon after the school year began, Miller took an unforeseen and immediate retirement to battle breast cancer. Her last day was Oct. 10. Miller taught classes, then, sensing the challenges a stopgap replacement instructor would face, she wrote detailed lesson plans for her successor.

Then, she went home to face surgery the following day – and aimed at getting healthy.

"I'm doing OK," said Miller, in a reassuring tone. "I would have preferred to stay (at THS), but I need the rest."

While Miller works to regain her health, those at Edgecombe County Public Schools are hustling to fill the subsequent classroom opening.

As the time extends, the curricular gap has become a growing concern of Norman and Delane Weathersby of Tarboro, whose daughter Samantha, a sophomore at THS, currently is part of a third-period Spanish I class. One of the concerns the Weathersbys have focuses on the impact that long-term substitute teachers – especially non-Spanish speaking ones – impose upon the students, teacher and curriculum.

In a recent letter, Delane Weathersby explains, "This situation has been most unfair to students as well as Ms. Cepeda."

Cooke charted out the strategy second-year THS Spanish instructor Martha Cepeda and a substitute teacher use to concurrently teach two 90-minute Spanish classes; each begins their class, then they "trade off" after 45 minutes.

"We're doing the best we can with what we have," Cooke said.

Meanwhile, Cepeda conceded that lacking a second certified Spanish teacher on staff has required her to trim down the curriculum.

"I can't do too much in any one area. We just do a few exercises," Cepeda said.

It also has caused considerable delays, making a "significant impact. We can't go as fast as if I was there the entire time."

She attributes some of the delays to a disparity in the rate that different groups learn.

"My third-hour is not as fast," she said. "They just take longer."

She intends to soldier on, working within her means.

"I'll do all I can," she said, "do my best to help the students."

Cepeda is doing just that by offering a liberal policy for passing. "If students miss, they can come see me for make up work." She offers "Help Mondays" from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Not many have taken her up on the offer, with “very few ... maybe one visitor ever now and then."

When asked if a lag in the fall curriculum might affect the present crop of Spanish I students' level of readiness for the sequel course, Cooke acknowledged, "It's a legitimate concern," and said the school would "discuss possible steps to assist students" get up to speed. Remedial sessions, reshaping the Spanish II course to include built-in review and an in-house diagnostic to better understand where improvement is needed are mentioned as potential remedies; ones that would put students back in line with the N.C. Standard Course of Study for second languages.

"We'll be looking into a few solutions," Cooke said.

In an e-mail to N.C. Board of Education Executive Director Rebecca Garland, Weathersby stated frustration with the present salve, "I do not send her (Samantha) to school for half an education," and a lack of confidence in ECPS efforts to restock THS with a second Spanish teacher. "I seriously doubt our school system's ability to 'make a different arrangement.' "

ECPS Community Relations Director Diane LeFiles explained that Assistant Superintendent Roland Whitted, director of Human Resource Services, has continued to "make a concerted effort to fill the opening." Along with employment listings on the Edgecombe County schools and N.C. Public Schools Web sites, Whitted has actively searched "local colleges and universities" in hopes of landing a successor to Miller.

The dynamic needed for a proper job fit are precarious. Finding a half-time employee is challenging enough; then add a heaping of "highly qualified" hiring criterion required of specialty instructors by the No Child Left Behind of 2002, and it promises to be a shallow pool of long-term candidates.

With Miller's recent experience of the instructor intake process, she sensed difficulty in filling the slot may ensue.

"It is simply quite difficult to find language teachers," she said.

Cooke agreed, "It is tough, given our situation."

LeFiles finds that for any short-term challenges to fill the position, the "present system is more beneficial in the long run. It helps to ensure the highest quality of employees."

For now, some may have just one word – andale!

(Hurry up.)