Here’s a story problem common in Clark County schools: On Monday, 156 teachers at Battle Ground schools took the day off and requested a substitute teacher to cover their classes. After all possible substitutes were contracted from the substitute pool, 14 classrooms still did not have a teacher for the day.
What’s the solution?
In Battle Ground and other districts, when there aren’t enough subs, district teachers are paid to fill in during their prep period. If teachers aren’t available, administrators with teaching certificates cover the class.
The dwindling numbers of substitute teachers is a chronic problem, not just in Battle Ground, but throughout Clark County and beyond.
“It is critical. It’s a statewide and a nationwide shortage,” said Linda Allen, human resources director at Battle Ground Public Schools. “We want people in the classroom who can move the kids forward in the curriculum and not just baby-sit. Otherwise, our kids lose.”
Many substitute teachers sign up to work in multiple school districts, and with nine school districts in Clark County competing for substitute teachers, some districts have increased their sub pay. Substitute teachers in Ridgefield are paid $120 for a full day and $80 for a half day. Full-day pay in Evergreen Public Schools is $126.35. Vancouver Public Schools sub pay is the highest in the county at $134 a day.
Nathan McCann, superintendent in Ridgefield School District, noted a “precipitous drop of new subs interested in subbing for the district.”
The district’s new sub information event attracted 50 potential new subs for the 2010-11 school year, but last fall, only six attended.
Despite the lack of new substitute teachers, Ridgefield’s sub fill rate is still high — around 97 percent — in terms of actual teaching positions that are filled by subs for the day, McCann said.
Evergreen Public Schools, the area’s largest district, has 578 active substitute teachers, according to the district’s spokeswoman, Gail Spolar. In November, those subs stepped in to fill in for an average of 198 absent teachers a day. That month, the district averaged 37.5 unfilled teacher positions daily that had to be covered by teachers on their prep period.
Why the shortage?
Clark County educators say the substitute teacher shortage is caused by multiple factors.
The shortage in the past few years is credited in part to the improving economy, said Darcy Rourk, executive director of human resources for Vancouver Public Schools.
“People are getting jobs. That’s lessened our substitute pool,” Rourk said.
When student enrollment increased at the beginning of the school year, the district hired 71 of its substitute teachers as classroom teachers.
“That depleted the field of subs,” said Lynn Maiorca, president of the Vancouver Education Association.
The emphasis on technology in the classroom has kept some older subs away, said Maiorca.
“If you look at the underpinnings of why we have the crisis, the fun has been taken out of teaching with the emphasis placed on testing,” said Rick Wilson, executive director of the Vancouver teacher’s union.
Another contributor to the sub shortage is a state law that penalizes retired teachers younger than 65 from working as subs. If they sub for even a day, they lose their retirement pension for the month.
“We met with local legislators two to three weeks ago and asked them to look at that (law),” said Wilson. “Any way we can get quality subs in the classrooms, we need to look at it, because it’s a crisis.”
Battle Ground Public Schools met in a work study session with state legislators last fall to discuss the chronic sub shortage, said Allen, the district’s human resources director. She posed the question of changing the law so that teachers who retired early could sub without losing their pension. The Washington State Department of Retirement Systems estimates that more than 1,000 retired teachers statewide took early retirement.
“If they could free up those 1,000 people to work as subs, that would be helpful,” Allen said.
But some legislators did not agree with Allen and expressed concern that taxpayers would consider that to be double-dipping into state coffers.
One short-term solution has been hiring emergency subs — people who have earned bachelor’s degrees but not teaching certificates. Local districts do use emergency subs. However, that lengthy process includes fingerprinting through Educational Services District 112 and emergency certification through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia.
A shortage of teachers and substitute teachers is expected to worsen as fewer college students are pursuing teacher prep programs, Allen said.
Wendi Moose, 41, stays busy working as a substitute teacher exclusively for Vancouver Public Schools. This year she is working two long-term sub jobs covering teachers on maternity leave. Those long-term sub assignments have increased her pay from $19 to $34 per hour, in addition to receiving benefits. But she still isn’t making what she would as a regular classroom teacher with a contract.
Being a sub has its perks, she said. She’s had a flexible schedule to spend more time with her 6-year-old son. But now that he’s in school, Moose said she’d like a full-time teaching job.
“I have classroom management down really well,” she said. “I love my job. But I’d really like to be hired full time.”
