Substitute stipends for Beaufort County teachers new this year
Grappling with a severe shortage of substitutes for the third year in a row, the Beaufort County School District decided it was time to start paying teachers a stipend when they have to hold down someone else's empty classroom for the day.
The new practice essentially reimburses teachers their hourly salary when they must miss a planning period to cover a temporarily empty class because no substitute could be found.
It's the same practice the district has been using when classes are left empty by teacher vacancies and long-term absences. Alice Walton, chief administrative services and human resources officer, said the school system expanded it because many principals said their top concern was finding substitutes.
There was just one problem.
The district didn't pass the news along to principals.
On Wednesday, many teachers learned from The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette that they were supposed to be reimbursed for their missed planning time, a practice that district officials did not mention was new as of the 2015-2016 school year. On Thursday morning, after one of those teachers contacted the district, Walton emailed principals to explain that some schools have been reimbursing their teachers since last year and encouraged all schools to start doing the same.
All teachers will be retroactively paid for classes they've covered since Aug. 17, Walton added.
"It's possible we didn't do as good a job communicating the change to the schools as we should have," said district spokesman Jim Foster.
There are only 254 available substitutes, about half as many as the district needs to keep classrooms staffed, according to Walton.
The shortage is particularly hard on middle and high schools, such as Hilton Head Island High, where teachers need to act as substitutes about three times a week, according to principal Amanda O'Nan.
Beaufort High School Principal Corey Murphy said he needs to pull teachers for empty classes about once a week.
He said he and his staff were thrilled when they learned about the extra pay Thursday.
"It's going to be a huge boost in morale," Murphy said. "They're giving up their planning period and now they're going to be compensated for it aside from just appreciation from a thankful administration."
The district has not tracked how often schools find themselves in that situation.
Walton said Thursday she did not know how much money the new practice would cost.
Short-term substitutes earn $75 to $90 per full day, less than the district would pay to pull several teachers off their planning periods. Still, Walton said, the change should not have an appreciable impact on the district's $2 million substitute budget.
Because the money will come out of human resources' existing budget, the change did not require approval from superintendent Jeff Moss or the district Board of Education, Walton said.
On Thursday, some teachers were still learning about the specifics of the plan.
Ben Barnes, a business teacher at Beaufort High, says he was caught off guard, but relieved, by the announcement.
"It was just news to me that that was a practice, and there is some resentment that I sense from the teacher corps as a whole that we've been mandated, asked, to cover things," Barnes said. "There's been maybe a thank you or whatever, but if there is indeed a little stipend, just a little bit, it would make it a little less burdensome to give up your planning period."
The district also hopes to take pressure off teachers by adding more substitutes to its available pool.
The third annual substitute blitz scheduled for Oct. 19 is expected to bring in at least 75 new hires, and Walton hopes for many more.
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
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This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Substitute stipends for Beaufort County teachers new this year."