BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[teacher]](/editions/1998/10/13/teacher_180x132.jpg)
Tom Klingel, a retired administrator, is a substitute teacher at Franklin High School.
(Gary Landers photo)
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Here's a modern-day education dilemma: Is it better to flip burgers or juggle a classroom of kids?
For substitute teachers, it may be more lucrative to serve fast food than to dish out a course of math, English or history.
A strong economy and a need for teachers has helped create a demand for substitute teachers in Greater Cincinnati and across the country, experts say.
"The problem we're fighting is private business is able to attract (substitute teachers) not only with good quality wages, but also with benefits," said Michael Virelli, superintendent of the Little Miami Local School District in Warren County. "You can go work for Wendy's, make more money and also be qualified for benefits."
Education experts fear the need to pay the mortgage may prevail over the desire to teach.
"You can go and find a job now just about anywhere, particularly in retail stores or food service that are going to pay you more money than a substitute teaching job," said Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education. "They may not be teaching jobs, but they put food on the table and they pay the mortgage."
Nationally, substitute teacher pay averages $58 to $64 a day. Because of low unemployment, fast-food restaurants can offer close to the same salary -- plus benefits.
Without a healthy pool of substitutes, districts have to pull teachers from classrooms, which can create a climate of "chaos" and lost learning time for children, said Patricia Hart, chairwoman of the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Dayton.
The shortage has become a statewide problem in Ohio.
"I don't know that it's going to get a whole lot better in the near future," said Karen Michael, spokeswoman with the Ohio Education Association.
"As more and more classroom teachers are spending more time working on their own professional development . . . that means they'll be out of classrooms and the need for subs is going to increase."
The glut of jobs has created a shortage of substitutes nationwide, said Darrell Capwell, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C.
"People are finding they can make money someplace else rather than being a substitute or teacher," he said. "We are facing a serious teacher shortage. Substitutes tend to be a short-term solution to a long-range problem: a national shortage of teachers."
By the time they graduate, students spend an average of eight months in classrooms led by substitute teachers, said Geoff Smith, executive director of the Substitute Training Institute at Utah State University in Logan.
That means a lack of continuity in the classroom.
"There's been plenty of research to show that students really learn when they have a good qualified teacher in the classroom; someone who knows their subject," Mr. Capwell said. "It sort of breaks up that continuum that's really best for students."
Subs always are needed in the Erlanger-Elsmere schools in Northern Kentucky.
"I would say anybody that's on a substitute list is working every day," Superintendent James Molley said.
The lack of substitutes limits the number of field trips and staff development programs in which districts like Little Miami can participate, Mr. Virelli said.
"We don't have enough to go around. We never have enough," he said. "Heaven forbid we have a bunch of teachers fall by illness."
Low pay, small pool
It's no mystery why there's a shortage of subs in some of the area's smaller or poorer districts, such as Carlisle Local Schools in Warren County: The district has one of the lowest substitute salaries in the area at $55 per day, said Superintendent Dennis Hern.
"Some of it is being competitive with what else is around," Mr. Hern said. "Financially, we're not able to do that. I know our substitute pay needs to be higher, but we don't have the money."
Dinzle Brown, superintendent of Franklin City Schools, said the district is its own worst enemy "because we've hired a number of people on our sub list because we knew they'd be good subs."
The standards for substitutes may slip if districts continue to have problems finding them, said John Lazares, superintendent of the Warren County Educational Service Center.
"I think it boils down to a lot of fast-food restaurants, for example, are paying benefits," Mr. Lazares said. "I think we're seeing less and less people coming out of school with degrees in education, I think because (the market) was so saturated the last few years."
In Ohio, substitute teachers need a college degree and at least a temporary teaching certificate.
Some states, such as Kentucky, are allowing some districts to hire substitutes with just a high school diploma, Ms. Hart said. Educators in Kentucky have started a pilot program at five districts in the western part of the state where candidates who lack teaching certificates but meet other qualifications, can substitute teach, Ms. Gross said.
"We have four or five districts who really have problems finding subs," she said.
Candidates must be older than 25 in those districts, and they are required to have training.
The Cincinnati Public Schools district isn't facing the same shortage this year because it pays $88 a day, has more opportunities and was proactive in recruitment, said Doris Stokes, human resources specialist with CPS.
"Other districts aren't as competitive," she said.
Back to class
Local schools that are feeling the pinch are trying to creatively recruit, train and keep substitutes.
In Princeton schools, administrators this fall advertised in local newspapers that they would provide training for those interested, said Michelle Walker, the district's personnel coordinator. Most of the 57 people attending the two-day training did not have teaching certificates.
The training program, called Recruiting and Training Successful Substitute Teachers, was created by Ms. Hart and James Rowley, a College of Education associate professor at the University of Dayton.
Participants were trained to understand and create lesson plans and develop classroom management skills while educators were able to process applications for their certification, Mrs. Walker said.
The district increased its pool by at least 20 substitute teachers, she said.
Educators at the Boone County School District in Florence are using a computer program called SubFinder to help with the shortage. A teacher calls the computer-generated system if he's going to be off. The computer then calls about five people on the sub list at one time, 24 hours a day, said Bill Hancock, the district's human resources manager.
"It makes it a lot easier for us," Mr. Hancock said.
The Kings Local School District in Warren County recently increased substitute teacher pay and has several "permanent" subs who are relied upon every day, said Linda Oda, district community relations coordinator.
"They show up for work, they may not know where they'll be, but they know they have a job, no matter what," Mrs. Oda said. "There's always something to do."
The program works because it gives the district a closer look at the substitutes as potential teachers. These subs also are paid more after teaching for an extended period, she said.
The Ohio Department of Education works with districts to try to develop solutions, said spokeswoman Monica Zarichny.
Some of those suggestions include increasing substitute pay and encouraging districts to hire subs long-term, Ms. Zarichny said.
Extra challenges
Most can recall those poor substitute teachers who were terrorized by students who sniffed out their fear and inexperience.
Nanette Hess is not one of those.
Mrs. Hess has been a frequent substitute with the Lebanon City Schools for three years.
She was a full-time teacher in California for 10 years before moving to Ohio to get married.
While she loves spending time in the classroom, she would like to do so full time. She's applied for teaching jobs, but nothing's developed.
"That's why I'm subbing. . . . You walk in in the morning and leave at night, and you don't have the extra work teachers have," said Mrs. Hess of Middletown. "Mainly, it's what I do."
But parents become concerned if substitutes have to teach a subject for more than a day or two, said Christine Olsen, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association of the Loveland-Hurst Middle School.
"It's difficult to find a teacher who will have the subject matter knowledge for the class they're filling," she said. "The longer they're out of the classroom, the more concerned the parents are. The parents' concern (is), what does the student fall behind in as far as the curriculum is concerned?"
![[teacher]](/editions/1998/10/13/teacher_550x404.jpg)