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Teachers Put To The Test

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By RICHARD MULLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 3, 2008

TAMPA - Rachel Fisher feels kind of bad about it, but she has reason to smile each time news emerges about a teacher behaving badly with students.

That's because her small Tampa start-up company that started at the family kitchen table, The Sub Hub, now provides an innovative niche product that offers school districts something almost invaluable in such cases - legal protections amid teacher sex scandals. And dozens of major school districts are clamoring to buy the company's product.

Here's why: The Sub Hub sells online training programs for prospective teachers to learn what it's like to be a teacher, how to handle students, classes and virtually everything else - plus what behaviors teachers are allowed to do, and what they are very-much-not-allowed to do.

For example, a true or false question states: "It is NEVER ACCEPTABLE to touch a student in a sexual way or to have a romantic or sexual relationship with a student."

Or this example: You should never talk about a student with any parent, except, A) another student's parents, B) that student's parents, C) your parents, D) the PTA.

That training session creates a timed digital record for the school district, providing proof that the job applicants took the class, understood the questions and proved they knew the rules of conduct and ethics for teachers.

That's a vastly more buttoned-down system than how some school districts operate, by placing job applicants in a classroom setting to review rules of behavior - with applicants who may not be paying attention, and may only put their names on a sign-in sheet.

Hard as it may be to imagine, in those cases, teachers who broke the rules could claim that they were never trained by the school about conduct - and thus the school could be liable for negligence, letting a bad character into classrooms, if parents of a victim were to sue the school.

The tests also cover other behaviors that are no-nos, such as gossiping with students, or discussing one child with another child's parents.

Meanwhile, cases of teachers behaving badly are stacking up. Three Tampa Bay area teachers in the past couple of weeks have been charged with having sexual contact with students. Since 2005, at least 10 schoolteachers in Hillsborough and neighboring counties have been arrested on similar charges.

To be sure, Fisher and her husband, Brent, and business partner, Boe Quisenberry, never quite expected the ethical conduct part of the tests would prove such a good selling point to their software. It's a general knowledge and skills test. But for one reason or another, some major school districts are signing up fast. Districts as large as Miami-Dade - the fourth-largest in the nation - have signed up to use The Sub Hub systems, and Hillsborough County is considering the system. So far, about 10 districts in Florida, including Hernando County, have signed up.

"It's been of immense value to us," said Sherrie Kudla, an administrator with Hernando County's 20,000-student school district. So far, 400 substitutes have gone through the training in the past year, she said. Besides basic policies, the portions of the test that cover appropriate conduct are especially vital.

"You can never give people that information too many times. They are required to read that information and understand it, and sign off that they do. That's very important," she said.

Other major new clients included Indianapolis and Albuquerque. The New York and Chicago public school districts are in negotiations to buy the product.

Bernice Gaston, manger of the substitute teacher ranks in Indianapolis, said her district was impressed enough with the system to mandate that all teachers take the training, even if they've been in the district for 30 years or more.

"For long-time teachers, some standards are completely different than when they started," Gaston said. "Thirty years ago, it wasn't uncommon for teachers to smack a student. That's not acceptable now."

While pricing for each district may vary, the revenue adds up quickly. Job applicants typically pay for the training sessions themselves, and sessions cost about $10 to $20 apiece. Privately held, The Sub Hub does not disclose revenue figures, but Fisher said that "tens of thousands" of people have taken the sessions.

For its next act, the company plans to focus on training for nonteaching school personnel, such as cafeteria workers, school bus drivers and coaches.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at rmullins@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7919.

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