R-I gives subs pay boost

Substitute teachers with the Poplar Bluff R-I school district will see a salary change for the first time in several years.

Thursday night the board approved an adjustment to the salary schedule for these guest teachers, including additional money for retired teachers returning to the district.

Previously, substitute teachers earned $70 a day. With the pay change, they’ll be earning $90 a day.

Former teachers from the district who return to these positions will receive $100 a day.

Dr. Amy Jackson, assistant superintendent of finance, said she’d planned to bring the idea to the board earlier, but it was put on hold after the economy took a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said for the 2019-20 school year, the district had a fill rate of 76.9% and so far for the 2020-21 year it’s at 64.72%.

The fill rate is the percentage of times the district needed a substitute and was able to fill it.

This increase, Jackson said, will bring the district to a comparable pay compared to other schools in the region.

While some have a different pay schedule based on whether the substitute is a certified or non-certified employee, Dr. Scott Dill, superintendent, said the additional pay for former teachers will make Poplar Bluff a trailblazer in the region.

There are other districts in the state that offer additional substitute pay for former teachers, he explained, including Houston R-I schools, but none in the region offer it.

“The thought process behind it being that by hiring in our retired teachers, we know for sure that we’re getting the highest quality substitutes we can,” he said. “It encourages those people to come out of the woodwork and get back in the classroom.”

An additional benefit, he explained, is that these teachers are already familiar with the R-I system, procedures and students.

“They slide right in,” he said.

Currently, the district has four or five substitutes who are former R-I teachers, Jackson said. However, she continued, it wouldn’t be a surprise if more sign up with this pay adjustment.

If a teacher retired from another district, Dill said, they would not qualify for the additional salary and would instead be paid at the $90 rate.

The board also approved the creation of two additional companion aide positions for the 2020-21 school year. These positions work with special needs students.

One will work with three early childhood students and the other will work with one student at Oak Grove Elementary.