Retired teachers eyed to substitute

The Watertown City School District has a new potential fix for its substitute teacher shortage: retired teachers.

"We can try to target retired teachers to beef up our substitute list with certified teachers," said Jason Ring, assistant superintendent of human resources and transportation.

Mr. Ring brought up the idea at Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting. Board members gave Mr. Ring their verbal approval to go ahead with his plan to target retired teachers for the district's substitute list.

Retired teachers could be a fix to the district's problem because they aren't likely to leave the district to take a full-time job elsewhere, it provides more substitutes for the district in case a flu outbreak hits and it provides the district with more certified substitutes. And if the retired teachers substitute in grade levels and subjects they've taught before, board members hope the plan also could increase student performance.

The Watertown district currently has 139 substitutes on their list, and 73 of those substitutes are not certified teachers. The district is short on substitutes because it has lost about 40 substitutes since last school year.

"I would feel more comfortable if we had about 25 more certified subs on the list," Mr. Ring said.

Of the 66 certified teachers on the list, only about 55 of them will substitute for any class, kindergarten through the high school level, Mr. Ring said. Some of the substitutes are more particular about when they will work and which classes they will substitute for.

"Some will only work Mondays and Wednesdays and some will only sub for kindergarten through grade 3," Mr. Ring said.

The district is already in need of substitutes, and the need for them is likely to keep increasing if a large flu outbreak hits the district, board member Yvonne E. Gebo said.

Board member Patrick J. Powers wants to make sure that the retired teachers are being put into the appropriate classrooms. And if that happens, substitutes in the district may be teaching better, he said.

"If we bring in a retired high school biology teacher to substitute for a music class at the intermediate school, I don't think that's the best use of our money. But if we're getting them in the right classes, I can see this helping our test scores," Mr. Powers said.

This comes at a time when Watertown High School has been put on the Title One "schools in need of improvement" list under the No Child Left Behind Act, because of test scores that were lower than state benchmarks.

District officials are still working on the plan, but Mr. Ring said retired teachers would most likely be earning a $125 stipend for every day they substitute in the district. The district currently pays certified teachers $85 per day, but would offer retired teachers more money to entice them to come back to work, Mr. Ring said in a follow up phone call.

Mr. Ring got the idea for targeting retired teachers when he attended a school personnel conference in Cooperstown, he said. Mr. Ring also has received phone calls from retired teachers saying they would be willing to substitute for the district.

The district may also have a larger pool of substitutes available because no neighboring districts have been targeting retired teachers as substitutes. So in addition to attracting retired teachers from Watertown, the district may be able to attract retired teachers from neighboring districts, Mr. Ring said.

"It's not that the substitutes we have now aren't good at what they do," Mr. Ring said. "But this will offer a higher level of expertise than we have now."