Substitute staff in the Warren County R-III School District will see a significant increase in their compensation beginning this fall. During its monthly meeting on June 10, the R-III school board …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous wesbite, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
Substitute staff in the Warren County R-III School District will see a significant increase in their compensation beginning this fall. During its monthly meeting on June 10, the R-III school board voted to increase daily pay to $120 from the previous $95. The new rate equates to $15 per hour. For retired teachers filling in, pay will go from $110 to $130 per day.
“This is helping us to get our sub pay to be some of the best in the area and hopefully attract subs when we need them,” said Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith. “They’re absolutely critical to the everyday operation of the school.”
This is the first bump in substitute pay in five years.
“It’s not a number we normally look at and adjust annually and isn’t part of the salary step schedule we have for full-time staff,” added Klinginsmith.
R-III and districts across the state have consistently faced the struggle of finding substitutes to fill vacant roles in the classroom. The 2020-21 school year proved particularly difficult with the risks of COVID-19 and more rigid safety protocol.
“This year we saw a big decline of our retired teachers serving as subs,” said Klinginsmith. “We typically have a pretty good pool of retired teachers, but with COVID I think a lot of them were wanting to stay back. Hopefully the pay increase will entice people to come back for us. That’s the goal, is to recruit subs, because we had a major shortage.”
Klinginsmith said last year the district averaged around 45 staff absences per day and was generally only able to fill about 15 of those positions with substitutes.
“It got to be a critical issue this year when we didn’t have enough subs and had 30 jobs left open,” said Klinginsmith. “Then it became the question of how are we going to keep the doors open and have teachers in front of kids. That’s what caused us to have to shut down a couple times.”
The vacancies remaining unfilled had to be covered by classroom teachers during openings in their schedules, ultimately costing the district more money and stretching staff resources when it came to time and energy.
“Every time we are short a sub, we have to pay a teacher $25 per hour to fill in,” said Klinginsmith. “If we can hire more subs, we can actually save the district money. Teachers can still have the opportunity to sub if they want, and I’m sure we will still have them do that.”
R-III also anticipates a savings from having changed its substitute service provider. The board voted to contract EDUstaff as its new provider earlier in the spring, replacing the previously used Penmac.
“By switching companies we’re expecting to save $25,000 or so to apply that back into the budget to go toward sub pay,” said Klinginsmith.
Those interested in substituting for R-III need to go through the enrollment process with EDUstaff, even if they were previously contracted with Penmac.
“Most of our regular subs are already rolled over and that process has been completed for the most part,” said Klinginsmith. “They can go to our website and click on the EDUstaff link or call central office, and we can walk them through it if they are wanting to become a new substitute.”
