Substitute teacher shortage an ongoing problem for Western Pennsylvania schools

Schools across Westmoreland County face a common challenge every morning, with many administrators struggling to fill day-to-day teacher absences with an adequate number of substitutes.

At many schools, the routine goes something like this: A teacher logs on to an online system and lets the school know she's not coming to work. The system automatically notifies the district's list of substitute teachers, giving them the option to accept or refuse the job. In the morning, when principals and secretaries come in, they check for unfilled slots and make calls to get as many classes covered by substitutes as possible.

Superintendents say it is not uncommon for some teacher absences to go unfilled, especially on days when there is a high number of last-minute absences.

“One of the more challenging daily issues we deal with as a district, county and as a state is substitute coverage,” said Timothy Gabauer, superintendent of the Mt. Pleasant Area School District, which serves about 2,500 students.

In the past three years, Mt. Pleasant covered between 86 percent and 92 percent of teacher absences. So far this school year, the district has maintained a 90 percent fill rate. About 15 teachers across the district are absent on any given day. That means the district has to pull classroom assistants or other staff members from their regular duties to cover at least one or two teachers' schedules for the day, Gabauer said.

Westmoreland County does not have a countywide system for filling teacher absences; rather, each school district decides how substitutes are hired and employed.

When a position isn't filled by a substitute, the school principal is responsible for determining how those classes will be covered for the day, said Christine Oldham, superintendent of Ligonier Valley schools. The district serves about 1,700 students.

In the case of elective courses such as art or music, classes might be canceled. Other teachers could be pulled from another assignment or a planning period to cover core academic subjects to ensure students don't lose a day of instruction. Sometimes, the principal or another administrator might cover a class.

None of those options, Oldham said, is as good as having a qualified substitute in the classroom.

The district keeps a list of fully certificated substitute teachers — individuals who trained to be teachers and have state certification — but sometimes vacancies exceed the number of people on that list.

“We went through this period of time where we were having to cancel special classes or have teachers covering,” Oldham said. “We were really desperate to have a solution to that.”

That's when Ligonier Valley turned to the state's emergency substitute permit program.

No certification needed

Unlike certificated substitute teachers, emergency permit holders don't need a teaching certification. They must have a bachelor's degree, but it can be in any subject. Ligonier Valley provides these substitutes with additional training in classroom management and school procedures.

The district in the 2015-16 school year filled 21 percent of its vacancies with substitutes holding such permits. But even with the emergency substitute program, 15 percent of teacher absences — about 198 out of a total 1,321 absences across the district last school year — went unfilled.

The substitute shortage is not a new concern.

State House and Senate education committees held a joint hearing in 2015 to examine the statewide substitute teacher shortage. According to testimony by state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera, the shortage is rooted in the declining supply of teachers in general.

For example, the number of undergraduate education majors at Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities declined by 44 percent from 2005 to 2014, according to state Department of Education data. In addition, the number of instructional certificates — which the state issues to people who meet the educational and fieldwork requirements to be a teacher — declined between 2005 and 2014, dropping from 14,764 to 8,615.

A smaller pool of certificated teachers has led to a smaller pool of individuals to serve as full-time teachers, as well as substitutes.

A September report by the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization focused on education policy, showed the number of teacher preparation program graduates nationwide dropped by 23 percent between 2009 and 2014.

Seeking solutions

While local districts can turn to the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit for assistance contracting with private staffing companies, the intermediate unit does not offer countywide support for finding substitute teachers, said Jason Conway, executive director of Westmoreland Intermediate Unit. The intermediate unit uses Source4Teachers to fill its staffing needs.

The Mt. Pleasant Area School District is in its third year working with the private company, based in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Source4Teachers keeps a roster of more than 20,000 education professionals across the eight states in which it operates. In Pennsylvania, Source4Teachers employs more than 6,500 education professionals who work with more than 90 clients — school districts, intermediate units and a handful of charter schools — across the state.

The staffing company, which has an office in Hempfield Township, also has felt the impact of a shrinking pool of new teachers, said Owen Murphy, vice president of marketing at Source4Teachers.

In the past, students coming out of college looking to teach might have turned to subbing as a way to get more experience in the classroom or as a way to stay employed until they landed a full-time job, Murphy said. But he's seen schools from as far as Hawaii come to job fairs in Pennsylvania, looking to recruit teachers trained in compliance with Pennsylvania's relatively high standards for teachers. That adds to the competition when Source4Teachers is trying to recruit new employees.

Greensburg Salem has contracted with Source4Teachers for two years. The district, which serves almost 3,000 students, reports a fill rate of 87 percent for this school year.

Greensburg Salem Superintendent Eileen Amato said covering the remaining absences is a challenge. Teachers or building administrators could be pulled from other duties to cover classes that don't have a substitute. In other cases, classes will be split up and groups of students will be added to another teacher's class.

“For one thing, if it takes an administrator, it takes them away from other tasks they were doing for the building and for the district,” Amato said. “If we have to split a class, it's a burden on the teacher who has to take those children because they've prepared for a certain number of students for the day.”

Greater flexibility

Norwin School District does not contract with an outside agency.

“We wouldn't be able to manage them and how it benefits our students,” Superintendent William Kerr said of substitutes provided by an agency.

In addition to keeping a district list of certified substitutes and emergency substitute permit holders, Norwin schools also draw from a pool of paraprofessionals — classroom assistants who are already employed by the district. This provides more flexibility with coverage while also benefiting students, because they spend the day with an adult who is familiar with the school and students, Kerr said.

The Hempfield Area School District, the largest in Westmoreland County with about 5,700 students, is exploring yet another solution. The district hopes to collaborate with local universities to secure substitutes — an option made possible by state legislation passed last year. College students who are enrolled in a teacher preparation program and have completed student teaching requirements now can serve as substitutes.

The goal is to ensure that learning continues, even when the regular classroom teacher is absent, said Tammy Wolicki, Hempfield Area's assistant superintendent.

“We feel that by being selective in this manner, we're having individuals who are there because this is something they want to do,” she said.

Jamie Martines is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-850-2867 or jmartines@tribweb.com .