District approves substitute teacher contract

CALN» A decline in the substitute teacher pool caused Coatesville Area School District to move away from Chester County Intermediate Unit’s services and approved a contract with another company, district officials said.

Coatesville area school board approved a contract with Substitute Teachers Service, Inc., or STS, - a customer service organization based in Aston that provides substitute teachers, aides and support staff to more than 50 school districts statewide.

The school district will pay STS about $133 per day or $66 for a half a days worth of work per substitute. Currently, the school district pays CCIU $100 per day for substitutes.

School district officials noted the service cost is cheaper with STS since the company offers a higher fill rate.

The actual cost savings for the district was not immediately provided Friday.

Compared to services offered by CCIU, CASD superintendent Cathy Taschner said the school district’s move is another cost savings initiative that will provide more substitutes to the school district.

“The number of substitute teachers we need compared to the number we get is not as high as we would like it to be,” Taschner said.

According to Taschner, the district wasn’t using substitute teachers at the high school. She said if another teacher is unavailable to fill in, students would be

pulled from the classroom and placed in a study hall.

She said when teachers are absent from schools it causes “a temporary interruption of learning.”

The likelihood of placing more substitutes throughout the school district, including at the high school, is greater with STS, Taschner said.

During the 2013-14 school year, the CCIU provided the school district with 4,219 subs out of 5,609 requested, or an 85 percent fill rate. The fill rate for this school year is 77 percent.

According to CCIU s p oke s woman Mar y Jeanne Curley, different factors determine the substitute teacher fill rate.

“At the height of cold and flu season, a 100 percent fill rate is hard to achieve,” she said.

Curley also noted when the economy gets better the numbers decrease. She said some substitutes also “shop around” looking for better rates in other school districts if there’s more than one opening at a time.

With the new company’s services to begin for the 2015-16 school year, the school district wanted to reduce costs while providing students proper instruction when teachers are out.

“We need to have substitutes in classrooms to carry out lesson plans,” Taschner said.

STS’s website indicates the company fills more than 2,500 jobs daily and works with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to ensure professional staff sent to school districts meet all teaching requirements.

In the agreement with the school district, if STS fails to provide at least an 85 percent fill rate from Sept. 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017, the district can terminate the agreement.

The contract ends on June 30, 2017.