Where did the substitutes go? West Linn-Wilsonville School District provides details of substitute teacher funds

The COVID-19 pandemic made recruiting, hiring and retaining substitute teachers more difficult. Changes in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District’s recently approved budget reflect that.

Following a financial update from district business director Son Le Hughes in May, some community members took to Facebook to ask, ‘What’s going on with substitute teachers in the school district?’

Notable changes impacted how local schools hire subs. Following the pandemic, the school district began working with EduStaff, a third-party administration vendor that provides staffing for school districts in Oregon.

Despite this change, the cost of substitute teachers for the district has not increased.

“The district compared the costs of outsourcing and managing substitutes versus in-house management of the recruitment, hiring and training. The cost difference was negligible,” said Hughes in an email. “Other vendors did have higher costs, which was one reason EduStaff was selected (through an RFP process). EduStaff is able to offer broader and more robust recruitment, a two-hour training course for all new substitute teachers, in-person interviews with each candidate, and the day-to-day management of substitutes.”

During distance learning, in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, the district saw a decrease of $700,00 in substitute teacher costs. Those costs returned to normal levels in 2021-22.

Each subsequent year, the cost of substitute teachers has stayed around $2.5 million, similar to the $2.4 million the district spent the year before distance learning began in 2020.

“As a vendor, the payment of EduStaff now shifts to a different object code in the budget (300 purchased services) versus payment through 100 Salaries/200 Benefits which is reserved for employees. This shift to a different line object code does not affect the ending fund balance, as this is just a reclassification of expenditure between object codes in the financial system,” said Hughes by email.

While the change to EduStaff did not alter the overall cost of substitute teachers for the school district, recent legislation and increased payroll costs have increased salary expenditures generally.

A joint Oregon state Senate and House of Representatives task force on substitute teachers has met over the interim between legislative sessions to develop strategies to make recruiting and training substitutes easier.

The task force is also looking at the role of third-party administrators such as EduStaff.