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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Can you please give more information about permanent substitutes?

Question: To jump off the question about perm. subs...One of the subs is also listed in a position where they are paid $200/day. First, why do we need to pay this amount of money to someone who technically isn't a perm. employee of the district? This would equal to approx. $36000 if they worked 180 days in that position. Also what types of oversights are there to be sure that we are paying for the correct service? It would be very tempting to say that you worked in the $200/day capacity over the $90/day. Lastly, it concerns me that this substitute's mother is her direct supervisor. How does that work? This isn't a family owned business and it seems that many of the perm. subs that were hired this year have family connections or very close ties to the district in some other way (PTO etc.). The district hasn't had perm. subs. in several years so it looks like this might have been a way to hire family members and keep currently employees happy. How aware of these connections, and the individual’s qualifications, are the BOE members when they appoint or are they just blindly taking the word of the recommendation panel? If these are questions that have been brought up before I am sorry, but I am new to this question forum.

Answer: Permanent substitutes are a cost-effective way to provide a higher-quality education than random substitutes. Having permanent substitutes provides consistency. A permanent substitute is paid $90 per day, but this fee does not include benefits or contractual obligations. A regular substitute is paid $80 per day. If a permanent substitute worked 180 days per year at the rate of $90, this would be an extra $1,800 a year for each building to have consistency when the regular classroom teacher cannot be there.

All permanent substitutes are New York State certified teachers. Before being selected, they were all interviewed by a panel of teachers and administrators and the Board of Education sees all personell materials just like they would with any other hire.

Included in the appointment of permanent substitutes is the detail that the individual cannot be paid more than $90 per day for a maximum of 100 days. Should they work more than 100 days, their daily rate would increase to $200 per day for a maximum of 80 days.

There is oversight in the payroll process that monitors how much money the permanent substitutes are being paid. First, the building principal sees the timesheet and then sends it to the superintendent. The superintendent sends the information to the payroll clerk. All of the district’s payrolls are audited at various times during the year by both internal and independent auditors. Before the checks are paid, the superintendent has the final overview of the payroll. This process is set up to have checks and balances and ensure proper payments are made.
-answered by Stephen Tomlinson, District Superintendent

1 comment:

  1. Lots of words, how about some facts that show hiring 4 permanent substitutes whether they are needed or not, at higher than the going BOCES rate, is really cost effective. Plus the word around town is there was some nepotism involved in filling some of the positions,

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