Wright City R-II School District is making a major adjustment to its pay for substitute staff in order to fill a gaping hole in the district’s staffing needs. Currently less than half the working hours left open by staff absences are being filled by a dedicated substitute, said Assistant Superintendent Jeremy Way.

Way outlined the staffing struggle during the February monthly meeting of the Wright City R-II School Board. He asked board members to increase the base pay rate for substitute teachers and paraprofessionals from $95 per day to $120 per day.

At an hourly rate, that would change substitute pay from $12.66 per hour to $16 per hour. That’s about a 26-percent pay increase.

Way hopes that higher pay will draw in more subs to overcome a severe ongoing shortage. He said in the years pre-pandemic, the school district had around 80 percent of its staff absences filled by substitutes. This year, that fill rate has been about 48 percent, Way explained.

The lack of substitute staff causes extra strain for school faculty. Any instructional time not filled by a substitute has to be covered by an administrator, or by another teacher during time that would normally go to daily class preparations or other activities.

Back in December, the district acknowledged this extra strain on faculty by hiring additional full-time, on-site staff who can act as substitutes as part of their duties. The board also approved an hourly pay increase for any planning hours that teachers give up to instead cover for a colleague. But those adjustments haven’t been enough to address the staffing need, Way said.

He added that part of the low substitute recruitment could be that at least one other district in the area is already paying their substitutes $120 per day. Other districts are also in talks to raise their substitute pay, Way said.

“We’re just trying to stay competitive,” he commented.
Board member Mary Groeper observed that if approved, the increased substitute pay will be a recurring cost for the district, not just a one-time expense. Acknowledging that, the school board voted 6-0 to approve the substitute pay increase, with member Michael Bates absent. The pay increase went into effect last week.

The pay increase also applies to retired teachers who are paid at a higher rate when they work as substitutes. Their pay rate went from $120 per day ($16 per hour) to $145 per day ($19.33 per hour).

Superintendent Chris Berger said the pay increase won’t have any notable impact on the school district’s budget. Money was already allocated for sub hours that have gone less than half filled, so changing the pay rate now won’t deplete that money.

“No matter what you do with this issue, we’ll be under budget at the end of this year,” Berger told the board. “We’re hopeful this has an impact (on substitute staffing), but this isn’t going to bump it back to 80 percent. There’s just not the people out there for that.”