The North Little Rock School Board on Thursday approved a more competitive pay schedule for substitute teachers for the coming school year and authorized a change in the company that manages the substitute services on the district's behalf.
The pay rate for substitute teachers who are state licensed to teach will increase from $70 to $80 a day in the North Little Rock system, surpassing the $60 a day paid in the Little Rock district and $75 paid in the Pulaski County Special School District, according to figures presented for all three districts by Gregg Thompson, the district's director of human resources.
The daily rate for a long-term substitute will increase from $90 to $95, a day, matching the rate paid in the Pulaski County Special system and surpassing the $90 paid in Little Rock.
Substitutes with degrees but who are not certified will be paid $80 a day, up from $60. Substitutes without degrees will be paid $60 a day, up from the $55 a day that has been the standard rate in all three districts.
Thompson told the board that because of the district's lower pay rates, substitute teachers in the past would commit to work in North Little Rock for the day only after they determined they were not going to get an offer from a higher-paying school system.
"Our goal for this year is to make the substitute teacher experience better than the one last year," Thompson told the board.
The district's substitute service provider selection committee recommended, and the board approved, the hiring of PCMI Educational Contracting Specialists of Portland, Mich., to manage the substitute teacher services for the North Little Rock district in the coming school year.
The district used SubTeach USA of Paragould this past year.
The committee recommended PCMI based in part on its fees, which have the potential to save the district about $97,500 in the coming year over this past year, Thompson said. From those savings and through PCMI, the district will pay health insurance of $205 a month to eligible, long-term substitutes. That $205 to be paid through PCMI is less than the $264.78 a month the district would be required to pay without the substitute service company.
Additionally, the Little Rock School District has also hired PCMI, which creates for North Little Rock the possibility of a larger pool of substitute employees from which to draw, Thompson said.
The North Little Rock district is expected to vote at its August meeting on a proposal to hire Educational Benefits Inc. of Little Rock to more strictly manage the use of the federal Family Medical Leave Act by the district's employees. The law enables employees to take extended or intermittent leaves of absence for personal or family health matters, including the care of newborns, with an assurance that they won't lose their employment.
The outside management of the medical leave benefit would cost the district $15,600 a year but has the potential to reduce employee absenteeism in the district and save the district almost $260,000 the first year, Lisa Boone, executive consultant for the company, told the board.
Metro on 07/18/2014