Maries County R-2 board agreed to raise substitute teachers’ pay amidst the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) offer to reimburse potential educators for training, in hopes of garnering interest to increase an inadequate list of substitute teachers.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham told board members on Oct. 27 that she would recommend the second substitute teachers’ pay increase in two years to help shore the district’s educator fill rate.

“Currently we pay substitute teachers $70 a day and certified educators $90 a day,” Basham said. “I move that we make that $80 a day for a regular sub and $100 a day for a teaching certified sub.”

Basham said they did not receive more interest in substitute teachers previously when they increased the substitute teacher pay. Basham told board members that neighboring districts paid substitute teachers more. Director Tom Kinsey pointed out that those districts have more tax income.

“A $7 million dollar budget can’t keep up with a $20 million dollar budget,” Kinsey said, but still made the motion to proceed. The board approved the new substitute teacher pay at $80 per day for non-certified persons and $100 per day for certified teachers.

This is the second year in a row that Maries R-2 has increased the substitute teacher pay in homes of garnering more attention to be an educator for the district. The district was at a 13 percent no-fill rate in September, meaning if needed substitute teachers, they would be short. The problem has been accentuated by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

DESE filed the new alternative education option on Aug. 19 and implemented it on Sept. 2. On Oct. 21, the state announced that they would reimburse anyone who paid the associated substitute training costs, including the $50 application fee and/or the $175 online training fee and a $41.75 fee for a fingerprint and background check per district that they applied to work. The automatic reimbursement from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) would only be made to those who paid the fees for the training and application between Aug. 18 and Nov. 4 of this year. CRF was also available for local education agencies (LEAs) that chose to reimburse active substitute teachers working in their schools for the $41.75 fingerprint and background check fee as long as they applied before the Nov. 4 deadline.

Basham said the district had 18 teachers out in September that they could not get substitute teachers to fill.

“We had to fill it in-house,” Basham said in September.

Which brought her second request in October.

“When we have to use substitutes from in-house, teachers give up their plan time,” Basham began. “We would like to pay them the hourly rate of a paid sub during that time,” Basham said.

The board agreed and voted 7-0 to approve it.

For more information about the new CRF reimbursement program or the newly implemented alternative education plan, contact the DESE Office of Educator Quality at 573-751-2931 with additional questions.