Rumor Has it...

...that subs in our district might be getting a pay increase next year!

This entire year, the sub line has been busy. I have had to make sure to take myself off the list the night before if I wanted a day off. I have come to hate that phone call at 05:30am. If I don't have an assignment by the time I go to bed, I'm off the list.

Add that to the two weeks off mid April for a beach vacation and you can understand my availability status has substantially declined this year.

The day after we got back, I took a 6th grade job that included recess yard duty. It was during recess, while talking with a teacher I've worked for several times, that she informed me of the news.

"I hear that you're getting a $15/day raise next near."

It seems that the "sub shortage" this year has prompted the teachers' union to petition for the increase to attract more subs from the neighboring districts.

"It's been crazy this year. Every sub seems to be busy or dropped out of the sub pool this year. We had to cancel some planning meetings and cover for each other it was so bad."

I hope it works but I also assume that this will be the first thing that the district negotiators will want to redline in the new teachers' contract.

Flood of Assignments...

Tomorrow is the start of last “work week” before the Thanksgiving break. Previous experience indicates this week to be a dead week substitute teaching wise.

It’s frowned upon by the school district to “extend” week-long breaks by calling in “sick” the Friday previous or the Monday following. Still, a few assignments do show up from time to time.

I was therefore surprised to see a total of thirteen open assignments for a single school starting the Friday before Thanksgiving break, extending through most of December and even a few the first week(s) of Jan/2014.

The assignments listed various different teachers at all grade levels so I don't believe this portends a mass group holiday exodus. The school must be doing some kind of school wide training for the entire staff over the next couple "holiday" months.

The only downer is that each assignment is for only a half day each, which also means half-day pay.

I took a single, pre-turkey Friday assignment and skipped the rest with fingers crossed to snag some better paying assignments for December/January.

Mistakes Were Made…

It’s not unusual to have assignments cancelled before day of the assignment. It’s part of the job and normally not a big deal. My preference is to have cancellations as much in advance as possible so I might have the opportunity to schedule an alternative.

But there are limits to my “understanding index”:

Cancel a week before: AOK

Cancel the day before: A bit disappointed, but still acceptable. Maybe another assignment will show up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Cancel the night before: That’s cutting it a bit close, but there’s really nothing I can do about it.

Cancel after I accept your late morning call, for a job that started an hour ago, where I have rushed getting ready, driven to the school in less than 20min since I got the assignment and THEN cancel?: Well, now I’m pissed.

“Then, why did I get a call to come here today?” I inquired in my calmest voice I can manage at 09:30am this morning.

The school secretary explained that she had already called a different sub come in. She needed to enter the assignment in the computer system but accidentally sent it as  an “open assignment” that automatically put it out for calls. She didn’t know she had screwed up until I walked in the door.

“…Ok, so I’m not working today, but what does that mean for me since I DID accept the assignment. The “mistake” wasn’t mine and I’m here as instructed? Will I be paid for at least part of my time?”  While she sympathized and apologized once more for the mix up, she said there was nothing she could do.

I left the parking lot feeling more than a little pissed. As it happened, the street I was traveling on went directly past the district office. I pulled into the district parking lot to have a chat with the district substitute coordinator lady to escalate my case.

After explaining what happened, she contacted the school and verified my narrative of events this morning. She then checked for any available open assignments for today. Finding none, she asked me to wait while she talked with the payroll office.

“The payroll system isn’t set up to pay by the hour so instead, we’re going pay you today for a “half day” assignment if that’s acceptable.

More than acceptable, I returned home and logged on to the SmartFindExpress substitute assignment system and printed this month's completed assignments showing today’s cancelled botched assignment and today’s completed half-day assignment.

Trust but verify and document… 

Pay Period Update…

The school district pay period for substitute teachers runs from the 26th of one month to the 25th of the next with the check issued on the 10th of the third month. When you factor in unpaid school holidays and breaks, this works out to an average of 20 possible working days a month. A good paycheck for me is little more than half that.

The reason that it isn’t 20 of 20 days every month is that the district doesn’t call every day. When the system does call, I’m might not have been at home to take the call. If I am home to take the call, it might be for a school/class I’d rather “gift” to someone else if you know what I mean. Then there are the calls that I let go just because I need a break. Subbing lots of elementary assignments in a row tends to fuel more of those “just need a break” occasions.

Since I added a couple middle schools to the list of 13 elementary schools I sub, the system has been calling almost every day. My trepidations about working with 7th and 8th graders hasn’t come to pass (yet) as I’m tending to actually prefer the middle school assignments over elementary.

For the pay period Feb/March, I worked 7 days at the elementary schools and 8 at the middle school for a total of 15 working days.

Just in time for tax day April/15.

Taking Advantage…

Subs are not paid an hourly rate. Instead, we are paid a flat “full day” or “half day” rate. Anything less than four hours is paid at ½ the full daily rate.

A normal working school day is something like 6½ to 7 hours. My full day starts ½ hour before the kids hit the door and “officially” ends at the final bell.

Unofficially my day continues “until all necessary work is completed”. This could mean extending for bus or parking lot duty after school until all the kids are gone.

Every Thursday, in the district I work for, is “minimum day”. The school day is about 1hr shorter than the normal school day. The school day ends pretty much at the end of the lunch period. Subbing on minimum days is a bonus in that we are paid the full day rate for about 5hrs work. For obvious reasons, teachers are reluctant use a discretionary “sub day” on Thursdays.

So when sub line called on Monday for one of those rare “minimum day Thursdays”, I was ready to book it.

That was until I heard that the indicated start time was 1 hour after the normal start of school. The teacher’s appended recorded message told the story:

“I will be in the classroom for the first hour. Since this is a minimum day, this will be only a half day assignment. If you could come in a few minutes early, I need you to run some copies that you will need for the class. You also have recess and after school bus duty. Thanks for covering!”

Her translation:
“I can get most of the day off by working only 1hr in the morning and save myself a ½ a discretionary sub day for later”

My translation:
“I get screwed out of full day’s pay by an hour AND she wants me to come in early!”

I passed on the assignment just on principal.

There might be some newly minted sub that is just waiting for that first call and would gladly snap it up. I hope not.

I was bit bemused to get the automated call for this same assignment the next day. It seems the no one in the substitute pool took the bait on the first pass and it was cycling around again for a second try.

As I turned it down for the 2nd time, I wondered how it would all turn out. Would she give in and re-list it as a proper “full sub day” or would she give up, go to work and save it for another time?

No one likes to be taken advantage of.

Got TARP?

I picked up my monthly paycheck at the school district office yesterday afternoon. It’s pretty puny as I logged only six days subbing. I guess it must qualify as my “troubled asset” because I noticed they didn’t withhold any State or Federal income taxes as they normally do.

I must have got some of that TARP money I keep hearing about on the radio. YES!




P.S. I'm currently reading "Atlas Shrugged"

Lite January Payday...

The current pay period ended Friday (Dec-26 thru Jan 25). The check for this month will be for just three days work. The month of February is looking better as I already had three days booked when this email arrived today:

(Click to enlarge)



It’s nice to be appreciated.

…and in case you’re wondering, my preference is “Diet Pepsi”.

Final Check…

Hooray, hooray today is payday! School has been out for almost three weeks now and today’s the day.

The “real” teachers got their final check two weeks after last day of school. We have to wait three weeks for them to cut our checks.

They COULD have verified and run the payroll for everyone at the same time, but they make us wait until the end of June for our final check so they can earn a few more days of interest on “our money”.

I’ve previously described the how this creative accounting method works to the benefit of the district at the expense of the district substitutes so there’s no point in rehashing it.

I arrived at what I thought was the very civilized time of 10:00am to pick up my check at the district office (they won’t expend a postage stamp to send it in the mail), and I expected the usual courteous greeting with my check.

It was not to be.

“Substitutes are not supposed to be here before 10:30 to pick up checks” was the greeting I got. Sure enough there was an orange flyer posted right there on the window and it does say:

“Checks can be picked up on June 30, 2008 after 10:30am”

The box of checks is clearly in view on her desk and she didn’t appear to be working on anything else except surfing the internet. Before I could reply with a smarmy comment of my own about how long she’s had to go since her last paycheck, she added:

“But since you’re here, I guess I'll get it for you” with the unspoken tone of “but don’t let it happen again!”

Well, golly gee, gosh darn, thank you for stepping out on a limb, going to the max and thinking outside the “union” time card box to look up my name in the alphabetized shoe box of checks.

I can’t remember, but I think I forgot to say “Thanks” when I left.

What Do Teachers Make?

By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com


He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about
teachers:

That those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

Who Wants To This Job -- FOR FREE??

From: WTOV9

"...HARRISON COUNTY, Ohio -- Local parents said they were shocked and outraged to hear that a man who was acting as a substitute teacher during the Harrison Hills teacher strike was never hired by the district.

A school resource officer from the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department told NEWS9 that Frederick Saunders of Youngstown acted as a seventh-grade social studies substitute teacher for several days at Harrison Junior High.Saunders was charged with misdemeanor assault after police said he hit a picketer with his car on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

Then the school district made a big discovery; it says Saunders was never hired.Superintendent Jim Drexler released a statement to NEWS9; where said Saunders made it through security and apparently was working as a teacher, even though the district had never hired him.Many parents who talked to NEWS9 said they were shocked.“

How do they know there's not somebody else that's not supposed to be there, that wasn't hired?" said Cindy Sinquefield of Scio.
-----

Just why someone would WANT to fake being a substitute teacher is a mystery but the fact that someone could show up at a school posing as a substitute teacher isn't all that far fetched.

In the four years I've been walking into school offices, I've never had to actually show any identification to verify that I am who I say I am.

They might ask who I am to match with a list of who they are expecting. They might ask who I'm there for to match with someone who they know is out and has a sub coming in. There have been a few times that the phone system garbled the teacher's name bad enough that I could only identify the school and grade level I was assigned. Even in these instances, I've never had to actually show any actual identification to verify who I was.

But...the REAL question here is: Who would want to impersonate a substitute teacher for several days...in a middle school... and... not get paid for it?

That's just three times, plain insane!

Teacher Bribes...

Should teachers be bribed to show up for work?

There is a Texas school district that is contemplating bribes to have teachers not use their sick days when they aren't sick.

School superintendent of a Texas school district, Dr. Larry Lewis, notes that highly qualified teachers have a high absentee rate on Monday and Fridays. He wants to reduce the teacher absentee rate and save the district money buy not paying for substitutes to cover those absent teachers.

Dr. Lewis is calling this program the equivalent of an "incentive or merit pay" system to motivate teachers to not to slack off during the school year.

Dr. Lewis notes that teachers receive 10 sick days per year and cost the district $65-$80/day to replace them with highly qualified substitutes.

His bribe plan:

• "Teachers who miss less than two days can win a $30,000 Cadillac CTS"
• "Other employees can win a 7-day cruise for two"
• "School with the fewest staff days off, wins $50 Wal-Mart gift cards"

Now, I always thought that "incentive or merit pay" was for something above and beyond the usual requirements of the job. Showing up for work when you aren't sick would seem to be "expected" wouldn't it?

If the goal here is to save the money being shelled out to substitutes (10 days/teacher/year), how about a cost savings incentive plan?

Let the teachers "roll over" unused days into the next year? Better yet, allow the teachers to "cash out" unused sick days at 1/2 substitute pay rate.

The district saves 1/2 the money it would have shelled out for "guest teachers" and every healthy teacher gets a yearly bonus.

But at the indicated (high end) substitute rate of $80/day, that would only mean a measly, maximum bonus of $400/year. Clearly too small to be much of an incentive.

Problem solved: Increase the daily sub rate to $100-150/day!
(I bet that Texas substitutes haven't had a rate increase in the last five years).

(...Thanks to Darren of Right on the Left Coast for the find!)

Dear Slightly Less Valued Substitute…

The substitute teacher information packet arrived Friday afternoon from one of the school districts I used to work for.

“Dear Valued Substitute…

Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year. Substitutes provide a valuable service to the district; one which is essential to the successful operation of our educational programs.

We could not continue our excellent instructional programs without your willingness to substitute in the absence of our regular employees.

We are still actively recruiting substitutes for our district. If you know of someone who is interested… blah, blah, blah….

Once again, welcome to the district for the 2007-2008 school year. We look forward to your participation…”

The only essential piece of information packet info I’m interested in this school year is: daily pay rate that is buried under “general information” toward the end of the “Substitute Teacher Handbook”

Because this district’s previous daily rate was slightly less than a neighboring district, I didn’t work for them very much last year. Instead, I opted to work in the neighboring district for obvious reasons.

It seems that other substitutes were doing the same, because half way through last year this district sent out a notice that they were increasing the daily rate to exactly match their neighbor district.

I guess it didn’t work because the information packet for this coming school year rescinded that increase back to the original rate.

“Dear Slightly Less Valued Substitute…

Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year. Substitutes provide an approximate 4% less valued service to our district; one which is, evidentially, less essential to the successful operation of our educational programs this year.

We found that we COULD continue our excellent instructional programs with your willingness to take a 4% cut in pay to substitute in the absence of our regular, more valuable, employees.

Because we cut your daily pay rate back by 4%, we are saving money but are still actively recruiting clueless substitutes for our district. If you know of someone who doesn’t mind working cheap… blah, blah, blah….

Once again, welcome to the district for the 2007-2008 school year. We look forward to your continued participation…”

I guarantee there will be at least ONE substitute less this year.

Substitute Teacher Credential Rip-off…

One of the irksome facets of substitute teaching in California, is that I have to renew my “Emergency 30-Day Substitute Teacher Permit” each year to be eligible to work. The renewal fee is about ½ a day’s pay.

I have to pay THEM for the privilege of working and it’s not even deductible.

Winter Broke Week...

The schools are out for this week. I did get a full week in before the winter break.

"Winter Break Week" is actually "Winter Broke Week" for substitute teachers.

SICK OF THOSE HIGH PAID TEACHERS!!

I, for one, am sick and tired of those high paid teachers. Their hefty salaries are driving up our taxes, and they only work ten months or less a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do....baby-sit! That's right, all they are is overpriced baby-sitters, and we can get that for less than minimum wage.

Now we're talking...Let's give them $3.00 dollars an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time, lunch time, nap time or "teacher work days" crap.

That would be only 5 hours each school day, or 15 dollars a day.

Each parent should pay 15 dollars a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now, how many kids do these glorified baby-sitters teach in a day.... maybe 25 at the most.

Then that's $15 per day, times 25 students =$375 a day.

And what about those special teachers or the ones with fancy master's degrees?

Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair. Let's round it off to $6.00 an hour.

But remember they only teach school 180 days a year! We're not going to pay them for any vacations, holidays, annual leave or such stupid crap as that.

So, let's see.... for regular teachers that's $375 x 180 days=$67,500.00 (What the heck ?!?)

And for the special degrees that would be $6 times 5 hours times 25 children times 180 days =$135,000.00 a year.

Hold on, my stupid calculator must need batteries! That can't be right! Wait a daggone minute, there is something wrong here!!!

There sure is, duuhhhhh????!!

(...Make a teacher smile, send this to him or her!)

(Note: I can't take credit for this one I received in an email...Thx, Mike!)

Half Day Assignments…

This is a slow week for subbing. I had a half day in 5^th grade Monday and another half day Tuesday in 1^st grade.

I’m usually not real fond of 1/2 day assignments but if I have a choice, I prefer the afternoon half of a 1/2 day assignment. It’s usually shorter because the kid’s lunch time is part of that half day. Since you don’t have to be there until 11:30 or so, you can sleep late and not rush breakfast.

If you compute the pay by the hourly rate you are actually in the afternoon class, then it’s the highest paid job for substitutes (per hour) in this area.

The rate (a little more than ½ the regular day rate) divided by the actual hours in the classroom (around 2.5h) works out to be about $25/hr. Slightly less if you do the morning half class.

Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary in the district you work…

JMHO - Half Day...

EG3-G4

If you have a choice of taking the morning or afternoon session of a half day assignment, take the afternoon. The pay rate is the same.

With the afternoon session, you can sleep late and it usually includes your 40min lunch.

Compare & Contrast...

Last Friday and today, I had two consecutive 4th grade classes. Different schools in different districts. The following are a few observations.

See if you can group the observations to my school of preference:
----------

Class size: 29 kids

Class size: 35 kids

No whiteboard space left to use as it is plastered with “Genealogy of the entire Donner Party”

The kids had an assembly featuring a “Rain Forest Musical” featuring native made musical instruments followed by an offer to sell the CD ($15/ea) or Tape ($9/ea). No successful sale to any 4th grader was observed.

At recess time some of kids ask me: “Can you come out and play with us?”

Confiscated student comic drawing during class featuring a guy asking “Who wants a blow job?” and also provides the following: “def: sucks balls and dicks as a hobby.”

This schools PTA holds an annual “Black Tie Formal” affair to auction off donated items bringing +$100k/year to the school. You can name your own street for the year if you have the highest bid.

Teachers lounge has free chips, salsa, jumbo burritos and sodas for the teachers (and me!)

Staff lounge has NO vending machines of any kind. I was informed that having a soft drink anywhere in school in the district is illegal. Funny, all the other elementary schools that I’ve been to in this district HAVE at least a soda machine in the staff lounge.

Teacher lunch - $3.25: One pizza slice measuring EXACTLY 6”x6” with EXACTLY three pepperoni slices, 4floz carton of apple juice. I didn’t even know juice cartons that small existed!

I encountered “Smencils” in class. These are smelly pencils that come in a variety of odors. Most of the kids had at least two each.
Flavor list: Root Beer, Chocolate Milk, Cherry, Hazelnut Latte, Orange, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Cookie Dough, Grape and Bubble Gum.

Teacher in the staff lounge indicates there is a demand for private one-on-one tutors by parents at this school. Rate is $50-$120 per hour.

I need a code and my own paper to operate the copier.

I can make as many copies as I want.

Payday...

I didn’t work at all this past week and it was by choice.

We had both grandgirls over to spend the week with us. They are 20 and 14 months old and a blast to be with.

My job as a substitute teacher allows me to take unpaid days off whenever I need. That is the one and only benefit of the job. This week I took it.

<BEGIN RANT!!>
I work in two different school districts and both issue paychecks once a month to substitute teachers.

The pay period for my favored district (#1) is from the 26th of the previous month through the 25th of the current month with checks issued on the 10th of the next month.

The other (#2) district cycle is from the 6th of the previous month to the 5th of the current month with payday the last day of the current month.

This means that for any one day you work, you won’t get paid for that day until 10-35 days later from district #1 and 25-55 days later in district #2.

Both districts prefer “day labor” employees pick up their checks at the respective district offices on payday. Neither district offers automatic deposit as they tell me that it is not available to “day labor” employees.

This creative accounting means that District #2 gets to earn about another month’s extra interest on the money it owes the “day labor” employees. (This has always bugged me since I signed up for this district and one of these days I might have look up the state rules to see if this is actually legal.)

District #2 WILL pay the postage to mail your check if you don’t personally pick it up at the district office by 04:00pm on payday.

To make a long story even longer, payday was Wednesday this last week in district #1 and I chose not spending expensive gas money driving to the district office to pick up my check.

Instead, I walked the grandgirls down to the park for some play time figuring I should see a check in the mail a day or two later. No biggie.

Well, Friday’s mail doesn’t include my check. I call the district office and find out that they are still holding my check waiting for me to pick it up.

Come to find out that District #1 WON’T mail my check unless I provide the postage. They will, begrudgingly, spend the postage and mail it to me five days after payday. I did not know this until this week.

This is the same district that cut the substitute teachers daily rate by $10 this year claiming budget cuts.

In exchange, I should think that the least they could do was give each substitute teacher an extra 39 cents a month to mail a lousy check.
<END RANT!!>

Bird in the hand...

E11-G6

What’s the deal with all the “half” day assignments lately? Half day assignments also mean half day pay. You always take a chance turning down a half day assignment hoping that a full day assignment might still be possible.

It’s the classic “bird in the hand” choice.

I missed two calls offering half day kinder assignments yesterday. I took today’s half day assignment in 6th grade when they called at 10:00am because any hope for a full day was long gone.

So what to do about this afternoon’s call for three, contiguous “half day” assignments in 4th grade the rest of the week? Take it or chance that you can pick up at least two full days to make more? After today’s experience, I’ll chance it.

Today’s half day seemed more like a full day. I’ve been in this class exactly once this school year about six months ago. I remembered that day as soon as I recognized "Popeye" sitting in the back row. It wasn’t a happy memory. But, for some reason, THEY were happy to see me! Go figure.

Guess what? This class hasn’t changed a bit in six months. Last time, I declined the offer to “send any trouble makers next door” to the other 6th grade, seeing that as a challenge to persevere. Today I harbor no such allusions.

Popeye and the two Blutos are going to be “outa here” the moment I get too frustrated with them. So to my surprise, while people WERE sent next door, it wasn’t them.

Two girls got into a shoving, wrestling match just before last hour so they got the boot instead.

Popeye and the Blutos were borderline “booties” today but survived only because I felt that sending almost 20% of the class out for discipline reasons might have been a bit much.

Next time I might not care…