The Scottsbluff Schools Board of Education tonight takes up a pair of proposals intended to increase the number of substitute teachers available to the district.
So far this school year, the District is seeing an average of 3.27 unfilled jobs a day, with Fridays having the most need of more than eight jobs, and the highest so far was a Friday in September when 15 jobs were unfilled.
Superintendent Dr. Andrew Dick says it’s not due to an increase in the overall number of teachers, but a smaller pool of available substitutes that’s having an impact inside school buildings. “Our teachers are having to cover other classes, our principals are having to cover other classes, and even from time to time, the superintendent has stepped in to help out,” said Dr. Dick. “The challenges and demands our teachers already face are very, very high, and so when they’re having to give up their valuable planning time to help cover classes, it only adds to those challenges.”
Substitute pay rates would increase between just under seven percent to a little less than 17 percent under one proposal, depending on a substitute’s status in the District.
The other would create an incentive program for those seeking their substitute certificate by reimbursing them up to $320 for the cost of the Human Relations training component after five days of substituting in a District classroom. Dr. Dick says that training component and the cost has been identified as a significant stumbling block toward certification of new substitutes.
