Oak Park Elementary School District 97 officials are debating whether to increase the daily pay rate for substitute teachers to try to attract candidates who will help fill a shortage.
According to district administrators, the item was presented to the board this summer as a response to concerns raised during previous public comment regarding the pay rate for substitute teachers, as well as recruitment and retention.
D97 now pays daily substitutes $140 per day across all district schools. The proposal calls to increase rates to a minimum of $160, with rates changing depending on grade level and background.
“District 97 has been looking at different strategies for recruiting and retaining substitute teachers, including incentivizing in our hardest-to-fill positions,” said Amanda Siegfried, senior director of communications and engagement for D97. “This review process is ongoing.”
Siegfried said the district anticipates a full proposal in the upcoming months.
If it is approved, daily substitutes would earn $160 at an elementary school and $180 at a middle school. Retired district teachers who come back to work as subs would earn $200 daily.
“This would put us pretty much in alignment with our peer districts and our West40 colleagues in structure and format,” said Natacia Campbell Tominov, assistant superintendent of human resources and equity.
An additional $20 per day would be added to the daily substitute rate for subbing more than 45 days in the district. Those do not have to be consecutive days.
Currently, substitute teachers who work 21 consecutive days make $150 per day. Officials are considering raising the rate of pay for subs whose consecutive days are with the same class to $305.55 per day. This is the same rate the district would pay a first-year teacher with no experience and only a bachelor’s degree.
Campbell Tominov said these educators, depending on how long they are subbing for, may also participate in teacher institute days and be part of the planning team.
“That is why we end up going up to the $305 [rate],” Campbell Tominov said.
But if a substitute teacher works for 21 consecutive days and takes a break to later come back, they will be starting back at the established daily rate.
Rates for permanent substitutes may also increase.
According to Christine Zelaya, senior director of human resources, permanent subs are at-will employees, but the district offers letters of assurance for those coming back for the next school year. Permanent subs also qualify for health insurance.
Most elementary schools in D97 have two permanent substitute teachers who work every day and middle schools have up to four, Zelaya said.
Permanent subs are currently paid $180 per day but the proposed change would also increase their pay to $305.55 daily rate and give them each a one-year contract with the district.
“It is a position in itself,” Zelaya said. “They work for us full-time. They show up every day.”
Substitute teacher assistant pay would also increase by $20, going from $100 per day to $120; however daily substitute administrators would stay at the same rate of $500, the current standardized rate.
The increased rate would affect students and staff by “providing much needed classroom support,” district officials said.
About 73% of the district’s substitute requests were filled from January through May. This includes teaching staff and administrators filling some of the vacancies when needed.
Campbell Tominov said the district estimated fill rates are closer to 50% to 60% if it factors out faculty and staff filling in.
“This rate would make us more competitive so in theory we would get more subs and that fill rate would go up,” she said.
For the last five months of the school year, fill rates for substitute teacher assistants — comprised only of external substitutes, with no D97 teaching staff filling open positions — averaged to 41.4%.
According to an annual survey of education leaders by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, 91% of respondents reported having a teacher shortage for the 2023-24 school year, along with trouble finding substitute teachers. The study also shows 4,096 teacher positions went unfilled that school year.
Across the country, states are trying to find solutions to remedy this problem, including allowing adults with only a high school diploma to sub and increasing wages. According to an analysis from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the annual mean salary for a substitute teacher in Illinois, as of May 2023, is $39,960-$44,590.
According to Campbell Tominov, the proposal will be coming back for a vote once there is a better understanding of how much of a budget increase would be needed and if the district would be able to afford subs at the proposed rates.
“If we needed to back out of that $305 and come down to maybe a $270 rate or a $250 rate, then that is what we would do,” she said.