Pilot Program: Substitute Teachers ( 5 minutes)

Transcript (~26 min @ 4:10)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 4:07 Christine Casatelli: Public participation is closed. Is there a motion to move Ed Stations from- pilot program okay uh pilot program from the educational programs and personnel um is can we move it to um above so moved second announcements thank you

▶ 4:29 Speaker 4: mr absolutely should i come on oh wait all in favor okay

▶ 4:46 Jessica Dugan: carries so much for that memory thank you so much good evening i'm jess dugan um chair of the educational programs and personnel committee happy to um to discuss this portion of our agenda tonight titled pilot program substitute teachers superintendent thank you um as we all know we

▶ 5:01 Speaker 3: struggle with substitute teachers for the past two budgets we've tried to raise the salary we've only been able to raise it five dollars because we've had to make some difficult choices to that and we have some proposals that we want to discuss for the elementary schools and I'm going to ask miss Cordick dr. carbs and miss Farrell to come forward to lay them out for you as a reminder to to the committee we piloted substitute solutions at the middle school and the high school over the past two years with the permanent subs those were successful the high school now employs two permanent subs year-round and the middle school as of this year one permanent sub year-round to help relieve some of the pressure some of the pressure arises mainly from the amount of PD we do professional development we do during the day as well as other opportunities we do learning walkthroughs we do peer observations we do the instructional coaches coming in so we send people to special conferences we had a tremendous amount of teachers last year attending positive behavior intervention and strategy training and so it's not teachers absences necessarily so I want the public and the committee to understand on top of it all during the day or our IEP meetings with families and those meetings often go for a couple of hours and we cannot keep pulling our paraprofessionals to cover because those paraprofessionals are supposed to be attending to children so we're looking for some in-house solutions and with that I will let the speakers address it

▶ 6:53 Speaker 3: so we have two different pilots going we're going to try one approach at Horace Mann and one approach at Lincoln okay so I'll speak please to Horace Mann

▶ 7:01 Speaker 6: so welcome back everybody I'm Mary Ellen Copts I'm the principal at the Horace Mann Elementary School the proposal that's on the table for the Horace Mann school came some out-of-the-box thinking if you will we know the problem is that we have a chronic shortage of substitute teachers although low pay is certainly one thing as a problem towards that the bigger problem that we see is the educational leaders in this community not just the principals but the teachers as well is using our paraprofessionals to cover classes we've put a lot of time and effort and goodwill in training these exceptional teaching assistants so that we have a solid three tiered system of instructional support whereas a paraprofessional can push into as they do any block literacy mathematics science and give research based intervention anytime you pull that adult the child is not getting the intervention so that's a problem that we see as great beyond just pay and we don't live in a bubble we recognize that pay is a problem but I think as public educators we know that we can't cry money all the time we have to think outside the box so with that at the Harvest Man School the proposal that I have shared with my lead teachers and I talked at length with with the superintendent was proposed by a parent in our community I think it's an excellent idea and what we're going to do is what the blessing of the superintendent is to move forward with a training program in which we would seek volunteers to come into the classroom the training would be around you know we jokingly called it a substitute boot camp but it would be provided by dr. Margaret Adams out of her office of curriculum just some general classroom strategies and things that parents or members of the community could support our family as students with we have an established as you know volunteer body through the bridge we have a wide range of professionals of the community and our hope is in thinking this way we would we be more likely if we gave people the skills to have someone to volunteer for three hours then we would to say would you come in and after taxes will give you $48 do you understand saying so we want to we want to address that way in speaking with the number of people in the substitutes that we do have on hand they are they're really good so what happens inevitably is by January they're in all in long-term positions whether it be maternities or leaves and we're struggling so we want to give them the training we also want to give the messaging to the people who are coming into our building and I know that my colleagues share the same that we recognize and value the work you're doing we're going to give you the training you need we're going to give you the recognition you name you are part of our team so we're taking a volunteerism approach and we are you know the skin in our game is not just our students but we're going to give you PD we're going to give you incentive that you can join professional development that the district is providing once you've been involved in the process so again outside the box thinking the fiscal picture is what the fiscal picture is but we want to as we have in the past at Horace Mann and in all our schools I would say in Melrose is just build on the expertise and the camaraderie of this community and see if we could take a volunteer approach so that's the present proposal for Horace

▶ 10:38 Speaker 7: Mann that we're considering and the Lincoln School is sort of working off of the model that's been as successful as you heard from superintendent more at the high school and the middle school and that is that we hire two individuals to work two different shifts the first shift would start at 8 and it would go till 11 o'clock and then we'd have a half an hour window before the next individual would come and they would work with us until 2 30 when we're successful we were counting for the morning part of our day and the ending part of our day and these folks would be permanent members of our school buildings but working three hours a day and would be paid as such we would compensate them for the time that they're in our building being mindful the fact that we need to watch hours and ensure that we aren't exceeding what we're hoping to be able to get and be careful that we're not stepping into territory that would require other things that could come along with a position like this I'm happy to report that on school spring we had 21 applicants and I started the process last week of interviewing had a few more today and have a few more tomorrow because we're really anxious to get these two individuals identified and get them into our building and and begin the process of having them get to know us with a building the size that Lincoln is with 20 classroom teachers and around 18 paraprofessionals it's a given chance that on any particular day someone will be absent for a variety of reasons and or someone may have to leave early due to a commitment outside of school and so the ability that we would then have to be able to have these individuals cover these classes and and make sure that the learning continues is something that we're really excited about and invested in and as I've talked to these applicants about kind of what they would be doing in our building I said you kind of have to be like the jack-of-all-trades the only place that we won't throw you into is being our custodian being our school nurse or being our Chartwells person who's in the kitchen literally cooking the meals I said you could be any one of anybody else in the building and they looked at me one of them did today and said even you and I said sure we're not so we're excited and I'm I've been really the applicant pool as I mentioned is rich there's a lot of people that are on it and the people kind of run the gamut for what they bring to the table some of them are very seasoned educators I spoke to someone who's who has just recently retired from public school education having done 25 years and said I just want a little something but I don't want something full-time and then we've got folks who are coming to us with virtually no official classroom experience but a lot of volunteering and yep and so those kind of people who just want to dabble and enjoy being in a school and like being around children so it's been interesting to see who who has jumped at this opportunity to apply on school spring and and and and chat with me about what the position really entails so mr. oh will you address some

▶ 13:49 Speaker 3: of the data we're hoping to gather and how we're going to factor it into the

▶ 13:56 Speaker 1: budget process sure one of the things I think you've already mentioned is the fact that it's not just about staff that are absent again all of the things that we do are very important I think one of the things I didn't hear you mention are like our data team meetings and stuff these are regularly scheduled meetings we are monitoring how our children are doing so that we can have an immediate impact back in the classroom from those discussions and it's really crucial to be able to bring all the teachers to the table when we're having those meetings and so we're gonna have data around the reasons why people were out of classrooms so that we can take a look at what it is we're doing why they're not in the classroom and then trying to look at again on a financial standpoint we have allocated X amount of dollars in the budget towards this process and the consistency that you get out of one individual or two individuals in a building does so much more than just talking about what the numbers are we will still work within our budget that we have for that line but just the importance of being part of a team and knowing that when you step out of a class to go to a meeting or to be out of the building that someone knows what your expectations are and who the children are and you know that they they believe that you are part of the staff and that's so important you know on a regular day-to-day substitute situation you don't know who's coming into your classroom you don't know the ability of them to work with the children if they don't know who they are so I think there's a lot of different pieces of of data we can bring forward come the end of the year and again both of these are great programs and we'll see how it works out but you know all the other schools are waiting in line to be able to do this we start at the high school we moved it to the middle school and now this is the next step that we need to

▶ 15:46 Speaker 3: take so one of the things that the committee may not remember because I'm sure you have all six of our union contracts memorized is when we pull Paris for more than two hours they then begin to get overtime so even pulling Paris has a cost to it so so that's a factor for us to also think about in all of this the the other thing is again I want to distinguish we basically end up with three types of situations we end up with long-term subs our maternity leaves our paternity leaves because we do both parental leaves illnesses in some FMLA Family Medical Leave Act that we have in place for some of our colleagues who have elderly that they're now caring for those are long-term sub positions that's a very different hiring process we're hiring somebody for anywhere from eight weeks to four months then we have our day-to-day subs is the typical situation I'm sick or my kid is sick I can't make it to work whatever it may be and included in that is personal days that our staff has a right to but then we have all these other times we need to fill as the two principals and Miss Farrell referenced the data team meetings the learning walkthroughs the IEP meetings the sudden things that happen in a day you all know that we have elementary instructional leaders at every building so that when the principals are in my office or elsewhere they cover well somebody's got to cover for them when they get pulled so there's basically three categories of absences or that you need to think about our coverage that you need to think about and we're mainly focused on that third category right now so point of

▶ 17:43 Jessica Dugan: clarification the pilot program which is now standard practice at the high school with the subs brought brings those classes together into one place so that that sub is supervising multiple classes at a time right is that the same at the

▶ 18:01 Speaker 3: middle school yes and there is a protocol in place at both in which the teachers have have an expectation to have complete sub folders work ready to go they get to know the permanent subs the permanent subs know the teachers there is an accountability measure with the principals the children are brought to a spot at the high school we took the old band room um and made that the um i don't know what we call it don't call it the resource room i know that um and um we go there if we don't have a need to cover multiple classes one of the permanent subs will go to the teacher's classroom similar model at the middle school at the middle school we limit how many classes can come together obviously not only do we just have one permanent sub you're talking about a different age group an age group that likes to entertain themselves more um in silly ways and so we try to limit that so we're still bringing in day-to-day subs at the middle school and at the end of this year we'll make an assessment of whether or not we can um it's more cost efficient to do two permanent

▶ 19:09 Jessica Dugan: subs and the permanent subs at lincoln would not bring multiple classes together or we don't know

▶ 19:15 Speaker 3: yet no no it's not a model we would use at the elementary so okay so the idea of

▶ 19:18 Jessica Dugan: a permanent sub is what's similar but the model and their support would be classroom based right okay great just for the committee's information there's no vote needed on this this is for informational purposes for us and I open to any questions discussion mr. Selm thank you for this presentation I look

▶ 19:37 Speaker 2: forward to seeing the fruits of the labor I just have a few questions can you clarify the job status I believe this would be at the Lincoln in terms of those two part-timers what do you you specified general time blocks but when you say part-time what kinds of hours per week are you looking for is the compensation commiserate the sub pay what are the union implications later

▶ 20:09 Speaker 3: down the road there are no union implications substitutes are not part of the teachers contract their independent contractors at will employees so there

▶ 20:18 Speaker 3: is no union implication the sub pay is typically what's $60 60 $65 an hour we

▶ 20:44 Speaker 3: would consider I'd like to submit our resignations so we would have to go back and look at this and prorate it accordingly because it's a more permanent position and in terms of numbers of hours it's about 15 hours per

▶ 21:02 Speaker 2: person okay and then one final question what is the overall budget implications of all both of these programs we don't know at this point that's why it's a

▶ 21:15 Speaker 3: pilot we have to run the numbers we have to see where we save money on overtime for Paris or any other situation so that's why it's a pilot we're trying to

▶ 21:25 Speaker 6: figure out what is the budget implication and with risk excuse me with respect to training we've agreed to do the training in-house through you know with coaches and principals and such so there'd be no budgetary implications

▶ 21:41 Speaker 2: there the only payment would be time so I'm gonna I'm gonna try to ask this a different way surely you have run sufficient numbers to think that this is cost effective in terms of having someone in the classroom and not paying

▶ 21:56 Speaker 3: over time and whatnot so cost analysis Mary Ann ran the cost analysis I do have

▶ 22:01 Speaker 6: some numbers if you'd like me to address that so for example let the numbers from last year there was an allocation of a hundred and eighty thousand dollars set aside for sub pay and the district spent two hundred and twenty thousand dollars last year so if that gives you a sense of then that was one year thank you very

▶ 22:22 Speaker 7: you're welcome I would I would venture to bet that there are roughly three individuals in the last year year and a half who have been what we've considered to be daily subs who have showed up faithfully in every building as they've gotten the call and so the number of times that we have had to readjust schedules and kind of play a shell game with our people as far as who can cover what including the principals who have done their fair share of teaching art and PE I can't imagine that this in the end isn't going to be a cost-saving venture for the district and be shocked if it wasn't excellent thank you further

▶ 23:03 Speaker 7: questions miss McAllister grant thank you for thinking outside of the box the Lincoln position I just have one question well will those people be expected to report every day yes okay so it's not on an as-needed basis whereas

▶ 23:17 Speaker 6: the volunteers would be we actually are gonna put a system in place where right now we're leaning towards using signup genius in which there is a number there is some predictability like I could tell you that where I need coverage tomorrow Thursday and Friday of this week where people you know we would put our need out that is determined because again the bulk of this again to emphasize is that we are in a you know a self professional development mode here and it's district and it's done well it's kind of an not common for someone to call out out of the blue to be very frank so we'll have a sense of what we need and using sign up genius those people have gone through the substitute training and and have been agreed upon by the building principal which is myself will know by Sunday who's coming in and when so there's a system in place for that

▶ 24:04 Speaker 7: that's great so they can plan their schedules in advance correct great

▶ 24:07 Speaker 6: correct and the teachers will have a sense of who's coming in thank you

▶ 24:16 Speaker 5: you're welcome for the questions discussion through the chair the superintendent first of all thank you very much for your time and effort on this and this may have already been said time frame for this and plan for a

▶ 24:29 Speaker 3: report back and when so we want to be up and running by October 1st in both buildings and we can report back to you at the committee's will that's for you

▶ 24:43 Speaker 3: to determine terrific thank you I just want to give a shout out to the parent for those of you who don't know Christina Gagliano who's been a great partner to us in a lot of ways she sometimes serves as our unofficial grant

▶ 24:58 Speaker 3: writer as well and this was bugging her and she contacted me late last spring and said I have an idea let's talk and so we've spent the summer flushing it

▶ 25:08 Speaker 3: out and now we're at the stage where we want to try it thank you so these are

▶ 25:13 Jessica Dugan: these are both pretty exciting thank you all for your work on it I think it would make sense during the budget cycle that we revisit with some preliminary idea of how it's working as it would would ideally be built into the budget appropriately for next year I did have a couple questions about about the pilot so the sub budget was over last year the two positions at Lincoln look to alleviate the para poll so when the pairs are paid overtime does that come

▶ 25:52 Jessica Dugan: out of the sub budget or a different budget so but okay perfect so that's a direct alignment at Lincoln the can you explain the decision around to part-time

▶ 26:02 Speaker 7: as opposed to one full-time we were cognizant of the fact that these people would be part-time employees with us which would mean that we would we would make sure their hours did not allow them to be able to access benefits and things like that great so this is keeping it I think a very cost-effective solution as opposed to hiring you know one person for the full day five full days a week week we'd be heading down that path thank you and the value of PD and and

▶ 26:25 Jessica Dugan: teachers being pulled for the vast amount of in-school PD we do is tremendous what is our thinking right now around how to make sure that we keep that streamlined and efficient there's always a reason to go see see other things happening see other schools in action meet with delegates from places who want to come see our work at what point do we really start to look at that how is that feeling to us right now around specifically the amount of time teachers are spending out of the classroom so again everything is driven

▶ 27:00 Speaker 3: by the strategy overview all the PD is based on the strategy overview when dr. Adams comes here in the spring and she presents to you the PD schedule you can see the direct alignment between those things we've identified as priorities not only in the strategy overview but now in your budget priorities so most of our work has been around social emotional learning technology what am I leaving out inclusive practices so that's been the bulk of our work the other work that is ongoing is very curriculum based and it's tied to the program reviews you see a lot of work still going on in science some revisiting of work in the writing curriculum based on the ELA review from last year and some work in math based on their review from last year so there is always a tie between the PD we do and the planning we do and the analysis we do it's a little bit difficult in this district if when you especially when you submit to me for permission which I have to sign off on almost everything and you put something that I'm going what does this have anything to do with the other thing is don't forget that in your own policies and procedures as well as the union contract it is very clear that in order to get PDPs for salary advancement it has to be tied to your job responsibilities what are your job responsibilities what you teach and because of the new licensing requirements sel next is me sei sheltered english immersion and special ed so when we have courses or offerings in those areas staff are able to get advancement on the salary scale because it's tied

▶ 29:01 Jessica Dugan: to a multitude of directives and we feel like at this point it's reasonable and responsible the amount that we're doing and it feels like it's at a manageable place so we expect it to continue to increase we feel like we've kind of leveled off um it it never levels off because you

▶ 29:13 Speaker 3: never know what the state's coming at you with uh there's two things in the works from them right now that we're trying to think about um but the issue quite frankly is time and our staff are very conscious about time they want to be in the classrooms they don't want to be out more than they have to be um we just don't have sufficient time i could easily add five more pd days to the

▶ 29:43 Speaker 3: year without blinking you know but that's a monetary situation great thank you for that

▶ 29:48 Jessica Dugan: i think it's important for us to see um the the kind of broader budget implications of our goals and our in our strategy uh with no further questions thank you very much we'll return to the