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Substitutes' 1st Lesson: Competition Is Fierce

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: March 26, 2009

TAMPA - When it comes to substitute teachers, it's a buyer's market for public schools.

With the economy souring, school districts are receiving hundreds more applications for substitute teaching jobs, and that surplus includes more professionals laid off from troubled industries.

The surge is so great that many districts have either stopped taking new applications or have raised their standards before letting substitutes in the classroom.

The story is the same nationwide: Realtors, bankers and other professionals, many with advanced degrees, are filling substitute training sessions.

The Hillsborough County School District has seen, on average, a 35 percent increase in substitute teacher applications since March 2008, and administrators now prefer to pick from applicants who hold bachelor's degrees.

Pasco won't train any new substitutes until the summer. Pinellas administrators are looking for substitutes who hold teaching certificates or who are higher level interns preparing to be teachers.

"We want to put the most qualified teacher in the classroom," said Marilyn Lasher, a human resources director for Pinellas schools.

Those who are training the new crop of substitutes these days often find the first question they answer is, How much can I work?

"Be the very best substitute that school has," said John Hillick to one class of Hillsborough County substitutes he was training this week. "You get on the preferred list. If I have to, I'll take the rest."

That competition has heightened in recent weeks. Applicant pools consist of former accountants who want to teach high school math or veteran professionals forced out of work who want to make a full-time career change to the classroom.

Robert Newton, 54, spent 23 years working as a transportation supply manager for Minute Maid, but work in that industry dried up. With his children grown, the Plant City man wanted to make the move to full-time teaching, so he's starting by subbing and learning from Hillick.

"Why not take this opportunity?" Newton said.

The surge of applicants is playing out nationwide as well. The nation's three largest school districts, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, aren't accepting applications, USA Today recently reported.

"It doesn't surprise us," Anne Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association, told the newspaper. "The bottom line is the school districts are one of the largest employers, and many of the people losing their jobs are qualified to be part of that work force."

Hillsborough hasn't stopped taking applications, but the school district has drawn from more qualified substitutes.

On average, the district has received 175 applications monthly compared with 130 last year.

Substitutes don't have to have bachelor's degrees to work in schools, but administrators say they now prefer them, given the surplus of applicants.

A Hillsborough County substitute with a bachelor's degree can earn $9.58 an hour.

Those with an associate's degree earn $1.29 less.

Pasco County schools have seen so many substitute applications that they've been able to fill all their vacancies and don't plan to train any more for months.

"We don't want an abundance of subs," said Renee Sedlack, Pasco's human resources director.

Pinellas County schools stopped taking substitute applications from December to February. During the entire 2007-08 school year, the district received 1,158 applications.

There's still three months left in the current school year, and administrators already have received about that many.

Like Newton, many want to springboard from subbing to full-time teaching, but as with substitutes, the demand for teachers has dropped.

"It's a little scary," said Rachael Hilfiger, 27, who quit her job in sales at the Art Institute of Tampa last week to work as a substitute, and hopes to land a full-time job in June.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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