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After four years without an increase in pay, daily substitute teacher earnings were raised by the Marshalltown School Board during the regular Monday meeting.
Director of Human Resources Jacque Wyant recommended increasing the pay from $145 to $150 for certified subs; long-term substitutes who fill the same position for 20 consecutive days was moved from $184.34 to $188.55; and subs who fill 50 jobs within a school year will get a bump from $165 to $170.
After the meeting, Wyant said she called surrounding public districts, such as Newell and West Marshall to find out what they were paying substitutes.
""Someone subbing for us made a crack about how much more money they make outside of the Marshalltown district," she said. "So, I wanted to make sure we were competitive in attracting substitutes."
Wyant found the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) was not at the bottom of the pay rate scale. Newton has been paying subs $160 per day and West Marshall provides a range of $135 to $175 each day.
The district currently has 41 people in the substitute roster who have been approved to work, 27 who have subbed so far this school year, but Wyant added more is always better. Struggling to find enough subs has been a long-time struggle for MCSD. Wyant reecalled when she started working at Marshalltown High School in 2015, and assistant principals would call possible subs at 2 a.m. upon learning of a teacher absence.
"During COVID, it was a lot worse," she said. "There were one-way hallways, people were afraid to come to the school because they were older or had their own health issues. I don't know we have ever recovered."
One category that has proven particularly hard is long-term substitutes, those who fill the same role for 20 consecutive days.
"A teacher might have surgery, a baby or is taking care of an elderly parent who is going through an illness," Wyant said. "And it's not just teachers. It's also secretaries and paraeducators. Fortunately, we are fully staffed with paraeducators at 160. . . . We are a district of 900-plus employees, and we need people who can come in and sub."
MCSD does provide substitutes with flexibility, since most of the positions are part-time and do not carry benefits. However, a person can pick and choose what role they fill, what grade to engage with and even what school building.
"A teacher will enter a future job into an absence system, and that information is immediately given to the subs," she said. "They can say 'yes' or 'no' to any job. We do not want to put stipulations that they can only work in certain buildings or with certain levels. The flexibility is part of the beauty of the system. We have people who substitute for us all the time "
However, not everyone is eligible for a substitute job. Wyant said a person needs to either have a valid educator license or have approved substitute authorization. They must have either a bachelor's degree, an associate's degree of 60 college hours with authorization. If people want to be long-term subs, they also need to get special permission from the board of examiners, she said.
"We absolutely value our substitute teachers," Wyant said. "We only have 178 contact days with students, so every minute counts, and substitutes keep the learning going forward."
Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.