Nevada Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead works with a student in a Spanish class while substitute teaching Thursday, April 6, 2022, at Chaparral High School in Las Vegas. The lieutenant governor, a former educator, was filling in for the day to help with a district shortage of substitutes. The Clark County School District is raising the pay in the new school year for substitutes who take assignments at schools, like Chaparral, where at least 75% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Substitute teachers who cover classes at schools with the most low-income students will receive raises of at least $30 a day as the Clark County School District struggles to hire permanent teachers and subs alike.
Subs who take assignments at schools where at least 75% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch can earn between $150 and $200 a day, depending on if they commit to short-term, long-term or indefinite “vacancy” assignments. Before the raise, all subs made at least $110 a day and there was no premium explicitly for working in low-income schools. Subs previously could earn between $120 and $150 a day if they took jobs in high-needs areas that included high-poverty schools, certain programs at career and technical schools, and the educational programs inside nearby jails and prisons.
The district said the boosts were to improve the rate of substitute requests that get fulfilled in low-income schools, which tend to also have the biggest challenges with permanent staffing.
CCSD has about 4,500 people in its substitute teacher pool.
“Substitute teachers are an integral part of the Clark County School District and support in ensuring that our students receive continuous instruction,” the district said in a July 13 memo listing the new rates.
The district said in June that more than 25 schools had permanent teacher vacancy rates of roughly 20 to 40%. Most of them were in the highest-need schools being targeted with this round of raises for substitutes.
Substitute fulfillment rates districtwide plunged from about 82% in the 2019-20 year pre-pandemic to 62% after the return to in-person teaching in 2021, according to a district presentation from last August.
Last school year, the rate averaged 54%, according to a district spokesperson. When the COVID-19 omicron variant surged this January, only about one in five substitute requests were filled — leaving schools so short-staffed that CCSD canceled school for two days around the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Brandon Summers, who has subbed in CCSD for six years and is an advocate for improved substitute compensation, teaches to augment his income as a professional violinist.
Other subs rely on guest teaching as their sole income, he said. And while he has musical gigs, he said the pandemic-socked market for performers like him has not fully recovered.
“This is definitely going to improve people’s lives, whether it’s day-to-day or vacancy subs, especially with the cost of living going up,” he said. “This is definitely needed and definitely timely.”
Patty Mitchell has been subbing in CCSD for four years in her retirement after more than 30 years teaching middle school English in Chicago. Here, she will teach anything and she said she would be motivated to take more assignments at the low-income schools.
The previous daily base pay of $110, which went into effect in January 2021, was a bump from $90 a day — modest sums, Mitchell said, especially before taxes and fuel for subs whose changing assignments send them around the sprawling district.
“We carry the same duties and sometimes even more than a regular classroom teacher carries,” she said. Subs can come into classrooms not knowing the individual campus culture or protocols, and sometimes don’t have lesson plans waiting for them.
Substitutes, whose hourly rates will now vary from about $15-$25, do not receive benefits, even the ones who work full school days every day of the week.
Mitchell said she had built positive relationships with permanent teachers — and the students, who have kept her coming back.
“I still love kids,” she said. “It’s still in me.”
Schools get subs either through an official online bulletin board, by asking around on social media or calling subs off a list kept in the school’s front office. Some teachers directly offer days to subs they know.
When subs can’t be found, principals can ask teachers to work through their preparation periods, send administrators to cover, or combine classes — sometimes in theaters or gyms.
Summers said he also had the kinds of relationships with permanent teachers that could lead them to reach out to him personally — subs and permanent teachers have mutual respect because they need each other.
“That is a nice thing about subbing,” he said. “You know that you’re really helping somebody out. You’re really helping out the school too.”
The latest sub raises are part of a string of incentives around the district to help with staff recruitment and retention.
In May, CCSD announced that it was bringing up the minimum pay for permanent teachers from about $43,000 to $50,000 a year and giving current teachers, district police officers and administrators $5,000 in bonuses.
In recent months, CCSD has also approved $4,000 relocation bonuses for new teacher hires coming from at least 100 miles away or out of state; bus driver raises of more than 40%, from about $15-$20 an hour to about $22-$29, plus hiring, retention and referral bonuses for transportation workers; up to $2,000 in bonuses for all full-time employees who worked during the coronavirus pandemic; and varied raises for the superintendent’s executive cabinet.
