By Julian White-Davis, Photo Editor
Substitute teachers are a vital part of any school system. They are the ones who maintain the flow of education in our schools when a full-time teacher is unavailable and are often retired teachers that still want to generate an income while being around kids.
According to the Vashon Island School District’s (VISD) Human Resources Director, Amy Sassara, Seattle School District substitutes make around $170 for each full day of teaching.
However, at VHS substitutes only make about $130 per day before taxes.
“It’s just wrong to pay people so little,” an anonymous substitute teacher at VHS, henceforth referred to as Susan Smith, said. “I don’t see social justice being served. [Vashon] is not a cheap place to live.”
Many substitutes have additional jobs or other financial sources to supplement their income. The pay that the substitutes receive is not enough to live on by itself.
“Luckily I have other resources, but if I were trying to making a living, there’d be no way I would be doing this job,” Smith said.
Substitute Chris Anderson concurs with Smith.
“The pay is inadequate,” Anderson said. “I would change it to at least $150 to $200 [a day].”
Anderson also wants to change the role of substitutes to become more of a “guest teacher,” in which the substitute would come to the class with their own lesson and teach students instead of simply turning on a movie, for example.
This form of substituting could merit a higher wage.
In spite of this, there are some substitutes that think their pay makes sense. Class sizes at VHS are smaller than larger districts such as the Seattle School District, so ubstitutes here don’t have to monitor as many students and their resulting issues.
“I don’t think I would ever sub in a large school district again. It’s too much of a discipline focus rather than a learning focus,” Anderson said.
Another factor to consider is that careers in education are low-paying in general.
“I don’t think anyone goes into teaching because they think they’re going to make a whole bunch of money,” another anonymous VHS substitute said. “It’s a tough job, but it’s a great job. That’s why people keep subbing — because they like the contact with the students.”
The school district has been having trouble finding teachers recently to fill their pool of substitutes. Some substitutes have said that this is because they don’t get paid enough.
Sassara disagrees.
“There is currently a recognized statewide teacher shortage which has resulted in a significant reduction in the substitute pool for all districts,” Sassara said. “It’s an issue that goes far beyond Vashon Island.”
VHS Office Manager Susan Bakker recognizes the financial difficulties of subbing.
“We don’t pay as much as Seattle School District or somebody else does off island,” Bakker said. “A certificated teacher might make more substituting off island, even with the ferry fee. Unfortunately, we aren’t very competitive.”
Many substitutes are afraid to speak up about their opinions on pay, fearing that they won’t be hired by VISD again.
One of the substitutes speaking out about the low pay outright refused to reveal their name to the Riptide — even with a guarantee of anonymity — so that they couldn’t be connected with the allegations that they were making.
Another source only granted an interview with strict assurances that their name would be in no way linked to the story.
“If you speak up, you probably jeopardize your chances of being hired here because it’s a small community,” Smith said.
This is a very real fear because it is legal to discriminate against anything that doesn’t relate to race, creed, color, national origin, sex, marital status or a variety of other specifications while hiring someone, according to the Washington State Human Rights Commission government website. Also, substitutes aren’t part of any union, so schools have more flexibility while hiring.
In addition to teacher substitutes, paraeducators, or “paras,” also receive a significantly lower rate of pay than teachers, even though they work full time with special education students.
“If you were a full-time para-professional or instructional assistant in your first year, you would be earning $13.92 an hour, and it would take you until your 15th [year] to make $16 an hour,” Smith said.
Substitutes for the paras make even less.
“Paraeducator subs are [paid] hourly and are paid at the base rate for the Vashon Educational Support Personnel union salary schedule, which for the current year is $12.22 per hour,” Sassara said.
One of the solutions to this issue of low pay proposed by Smith is to deny the current bond that would give money to upgrading the school’s athletic facilities as a statement to try to get substitute teacher salaries raised.
“If the community tells the district that they refuse to pay for yet another bond — when district paras are taking 15 years to get to $16 an hour — until that situation is rectified, the school district might just listen,” Smith said.
To be clear, Smith was not trying to suggest that the school district should redirect potential funds for the bond towards substitute teacher pay, as that would be illegal. Bakker spoke openly about how she believes that the substitutes aren’t being paid enough.
“I’m hoping there will be some changes because they need [a] raise, especially with Seattle going up and minimum wage going up,” Bakker said.
However, within the scope of reality, the options for raising substitute teacher salaries remain limited.