BY ROBERT WHALE and ROSS COYLE
Reporter Newspapers

As the economy continues its upswing, school districts in South King County are seeing a decline in substitute teachers.

Since the beginning of 2014, the Kent School District has managed to fill an average of 78 percent of its needs for substitute slots, according to district spokesman Chris Loftis. According to a Northwood Middle School teacher in Kent, who spoke about the issue anonymously, that number may be even smaller.

On any given day the Auburn and Kent school districts may each need as many as 300 substitute teachers yet be able to find only half that number, he said.

What that means, the teacher says, is that too often the district has to pull teachers away from their break periods or combine classes.

Over the past two years, with substitutes finding better work in an improving economy, and teachers taking more time off for sick days or for training, the shortage has begun to bite.

The teacher said the shortage has forced his school to bring in other teachers or staff members to cover classes.

“The substitute pool is very small now,” he said, “small enough that on any given day, someone in the school is having to cover for someone else’s class.”

Kent is not the only district grappling with this problem. In fact, it is afflicting school districts throughout the Puget Sound Region.

“Oh, there’s definitely a shortage,” says Adam Couch, principal at Dick Scobee Elementary School in Auburn. “Every week we have a number of sub jobs that go unfilled, and from my building one or two. We’re on the low end, but that’s really impactful.”

Debbie Leighton, director of human resources for the Auburn School District, says the new teaching standards and the training required for them, the new teacher evaluation system and the training required for it, and the new class-size initiative have helped to create the vacuum.

“There were people in the sub-pool that were looking for jobs, and they’ve gotten hired. Those things are just continuing to be a pull on staff, and of course it’s flu season from now until April,” Leighton said.

The Northwood teacher suspects the issue may be about more than wages and benefits; he said it may turn on another district concern — rotating education programming and, as Leighton said above, more teacher training days.

Trying to stay current

Part of the difficulty, he suspects, is the Kent School District’s practice of constantly introducing and changing educational programs, leading to more days when teachers are out of the classrooms and in training. Given the wealth of available substitutes in previous years, that was not a problem. But now that the pool has dried up, it’s become a daily struggle.

“We have teachers, and I’m one of them, (and) my stress and anxiety level has gone through the roof,” he said. “From what I understand, the district hasn’t been actively seeking subs.”

Beth Raines, in her 27th year of teaching and today a support specialist for the Auburn School District, teaches, she says, “the gamut” at Scobee, first, second, fourth grades and more.

“Day to day, it’s a scramble,” Raines said. “Within this building, we’re very committed to having other’s backs. So we’ll adjust to kids. We have cancelled teacher’s planning times and paid them to be in the building during their planning time to cover a classroom even at a different grade level.

“We’ve also divided kids up, and that has an impact on other classrooms, especially if it’s a different grade level, trying to get things that will be powerful for their learning but then also you now have 30 or 32 students inside your classroom that you’re trying to juggle with your other class.”

“Their ability to do their original plan is really messed up,” Couch said of teachers.

For instance, a teacher teaching an English-as-Second Language writing assignment tailors it strictly to his or her class and each student’s needs, depending on his or her abilities.

“If I am teaching fourth grade and I have six first-graders coming in, I am all of a sudden forced to juggle and find something that’s meaningful for the first-graders and the four fourth-graders’ needs,” Couch said. “It can be dispiriting, especially if it’s last minute. If a teacher gets the flu in the middle of the day and can’t get a substitute, that’s just something we do, and we all kind of rally around that person.”

Wanted: more subs

From the Northwood teacher’s perspective, the Kent School District must do more to deepen its pool of substitutes. Some teachers at Northwood, he says, have already covered another classroom 16 to 18 times this year.

A staff member at Northwood, who asked not to be named, also suggested that a low number of substitutes in the pool may relate to a bias that considers substitutes unprofessional.

Shelly Falkner, a teacher at Kent-Meridian High School, left a sales and marketing position 15 years ago and began a second career as a substitute teacher. Over that interval, she says, the work has been consistent but not terribly lucrative.

While Falkner agrees that many of the explanations offered for sub shortages are valid, for instance, pay, respect, and time commitment, she also suspects that the problem could be how people see the substitute’s role.

“I don’t know that the perception of the substitute’s job is as professional as it should be,” she says. “It really is another career.”

“It gets really busy after the introduction of the school year,” says Falkner, “because of colds and flus. Kids are notorious for sharing in that regard. So the need is there every day.”

Nevertheless, Falkner says, it’s a perfect job for people like her in “semi-retirement.”

“You’re not in it for the pay, you’re in it for the passion of the kids,” Falkner says. “It’s the perfect job if you’re looking at being an educator and want to see if you’re good at it. It’s a good part-time job while you’re going to school. I went and got my masters while I was doing this. If you are impatient and like everything perfect, it’s not the job for you.”

Part of the problem, Falkner says, is when substitute availability is low and teachers are thrown into any class. While she is a talented teacher for marketing and communications classes, she feels she is less useful in a foreign language class where a teacher simply prepares a student-centered lesson plan. To this end, Falkner suggests the district should recruit more industry retirees and people with the time and the skills to provide the missing links and lessons when a teacher has to leave the classroom.

“I think of all the Boeing engineers who are good at math … and the kids love to hear about what you used to do in the real world and what’s out there,” Falkner said.

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This information relates specifically to substitute teachers and substitute para-educators/office personnel in the Auburn School District.

Substitute teachers:

2012-13: 407
2013-14: 337
2014-15: 245

Substitute para-educator/office personnel:

2013-14: 98
2014-15: 69

The District has also hired 42 growth positions, creating new opportunities for substitutes to cover absences

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PHOTO BELOW: Kent-Meridian High School substitute Shelly Falkner patrols her IB Spanish classroom to keep students on task and encourage study time. While Falkner knows little about Spanish, she’s needed at least to be an adult in the room and be there to answer questions students have about assignments. ROSS COYLE, Kent Reporter