by Heidi L. Everett
The St. Cloud school district recently announced four steps it’s taking to try and increase substitute teacher support, including a temporary pay increase.
At the Dec. 1 school board work session, the district’s assistant superintendents presented successes and challenges of the first half of the school year. Among them was the lack of coverage and support for teachers who, as Assistant Superintendent Laurie Putnam said, are once again experiencing “a year that continues to be unlike any that we have experienced before.”
“We were concerned about burnout and exhaustion,” said Mike Rivard, assistant superintendent for elementary education.
The district recently held what was called a “substitute summit” to talk about ways to increase the number of substitute teachers in order to have coverage on days when needed. Through this summit, four solutions were identified.
The first solution is to increase rates of pay for guest teachers and retired teachers through the end of this academic year. Daily substitute teachers will now earn $160/day, up from $140/day. Permanent building substitutes or retirees will earn $200/day, up from $150/day.
In addition, staff from the district offices will be available to provide coverage for classrooms.
“We do have staff members who are able to go out and help when we are significantly short at the building level,” Rivard said.
A third strategy is to immediately tap into college graduates completing their degrees this December and enlist them as floating teachers in the buildings.
“We’re trying to grab those student teachers up as they become licensed as quickly as possible,” Rivard said.
Finally, the district is hoping to increase its number of guest teachers as funding allows. Currently one guest teacher is employed per school.
Education is feeling the pains of labor shortage like most other industries. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s second quarter job vacancies survey, nearly 22,000 jobs were available in Central Minnesota which includes Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties. The industries with the highest vacancies include food service, sales, transportation and material moving, production and healthcare.
To read requirements for substitute teachers in District 742 and apply for open positions, visit www.isd742.org and type the word substitute in the search bar.
