The Eastern Pulaski School Corporation is once again adjusting pay levels for substitute teachers. Substitutes who are licensed teachers will again be paid five dollars more per day than other substitute teachers.
The school board approved the change Monday at the recommendation of Superintendent Dan Foster. “A couple months ago, we adjusted some pays of some of the classified [staff]. That included substitute teacher,” he explained. “I had contacted some other schools and seen what they’re doing, and some of them have gone to this one-pay – if you’re a substitute, here’s the pay, and you just go on. We tried that, and it didn’t work out so well. So sometimes, we have to say, ‘Yep, we missed that one.'”
Foster said the change would bring back the pay difference that used to be in place. “We’ve always had a five-dollar difference in a licensed teacher, for their sub rate, versus somebody who just has a substitute teaching license,” he explained. Under the revised pay structure, licensed teachers will now get $70 per day for subbing for up to 20 days, and $85 for each day after that.
Foster acknowledged that the five-dollar pay difference isn’t much, but it’s what the school corporation can afford. “There were three or four schools that did substitute pay at the same time, and it’s kind of like bus drivers. It’s a victim of a stable economy, is that, gee, you don’t really have a lot of choices, and you want to reward and pay those people that do a good job, and anymore, it’s not just going in from 8:00 to 3:30 and babysitting for a day. You come in to sub, we expect you to work that day.”
However, school officials pointed out that other nearby schools pay their substitute teachers less than Eastern Pulaski does.
