A surge in the number of people who think they want to be substitute teachers hasn’t translated into a ready pool of subs able to jump into a classroom at a moment’s notice.
So metro-area school districts in recent years have moved toward creating smaller — but more willing — pools of people who want to teach and can drop everything to do it when a district calls.
“We want to have a smaller pool that’s more active than a large pool that’s not available,” said Shayne Spalten, director of human resources for Denver Public Schools. “So we’ve cooled down on hiring, but then we will be building up our pool in more targeted ways.”
In the metro area, DPS is among the districts that have changed rules in recent years to weed out those substitute teachers who aren’t necessarily as committed as they thought they’d be when they signed up.
The district started an initiative two years ago, requiring that substitute teachers work at least five days a month to remain in the pool.
With the increased workload requirement, fill rates for absent teachers rose from as low as 88 percent to up to 95 percent in the past two years.
But the fill rates for the current semester show a drop back to 83 percent in the month of April, despite better teacher attendance, prompting a renewed enforcement of the load requirement.
“We are showing over 7,000 fewer absences this year than last year with roughly the same amount of hires,” said Kristine Garrett, manager of human resources for DPS. “My jaw just about dropped looking at those fill rates.”
The district is looking into what caused the drops this time.
Requirements for other school districts are not yet as stringent, but some counties are moving in Denver’s direction.
In Douglas County, substitutes have to be in the classroom once every 90 days. In the Boulder Valley School District, subs don’t have a load requirement at all, but the district maintains a 93 percent fill rate. Aurora Public Schools also doesn’t have a workload requirement, but the district’s fill rates are lower, at an average of 90 percent.
Jefferson County doubled its minimum work requirement to 20 days a year five years ago. In the past two years, the district’s fill rate has been above 99 percent.
“We average about 400 teachers out a day, so we shoot to have 2,000 in the pool to draw from,” said James Baker, director of employee services in Jefferson County. “Any less, and we would have too many unfilled jobs. Any more, and we risk upset subs because they can’t find enough jobs.”
The balance in other districts became trickier when the number of substitute-teacher applicants rose in recent years.
To date, the number of licenses issued by the state for substitute teaching in the current 2010-11 year is at 6,196. In the 2008-09 year, the state issued 7,752 licenses.
The surge in applicants for substitute licenses and positions was most noticeable in 2008, when the recession prompted career changes and searches for second or third part-time jobs.
Glenn Anderson made the move from his career in purchasing to becoming a substitute teacher in 2001.
“I talked to so many teachers who said they lacked good substitute teachers, so I try to be their best substitute,” Anderson said.
Because of his commitment, teachers often request Anderson directly. And Anderson has managed to just about make a career out of subbing.
Nearly every day, he can find a classroom where he’s needed — usually at Archuleta Elementary, Centennial K-8 School or Harrington Elementary.
“I really love helping teachers to help students,” Anderson said. “If I can motivate and push the students, that makes me feel good.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
