Substitute Teachers

Vet,

It really isn't difficult to figure out why MCSD has to pay substitutes more; you have pointed out some of the reasons in previous posts. Poor discipline, lack of academic focus, safety in the classroom, these could be just a few of the reasons why you'd have to pay a substitute more. I'm curious as to whether this substitute consortium allows teachers to refuse assignments to schools they don't want to be in. I don't really think they're trying to be accountable as much as this is a good PR move for the upcoming levy push.

I commend the school district for the recent cuts and encourage this district to keep cutting to the basics. Private companies are unloading people, equipment and facilities. I see no reason why the schools should be absolved from doing the same thing in these tough times. The state is cutting funds to local schools. That is a much repeated theme from the school folks. We taxpayers understand that your state money tap has been turned off. All the more reason why you folks need to make better informed decisions, make do with the money you have, reduce your system to correspond with the money available to operate it and do as we all are doing.......live lean and mean, just surviving with the basics until times are a little kinder to us all. No time to tolerate excessive fat. No time to ask for more.

IMO, you should always have the "peel the onion" thinking going, not just in lean times but in more prosperous times too. Unfortunately, we taxpayers have seen some hiring of layers upon layers/redundancy of responsibilities and high salary jobs within the schools AND the city building in the better times, when money was more readily available. That's when "Vice President of Rubber Band Consumption and Director of Paper Clip" positions are created. When you folks do that, it reduces the impact of acting in a more responsible manner when times are lean. IMO, you have a long way to go to give us a "warm feeling" about your intentions. JMO

Specifically, Mr. Fiora, why do you think the district was paying $101.46 per day when the max. for the county was $85? How did we get to that point and why wasn't this fact monitored, questioned and changed to the $85 amount a long time ago? Why would Middletown schools, always asking for money from the taxpayer through one levy or another, be paying more than any other district in the county for this service with the super just now announcing the district is coming more in-line with the other districts? What other services are we paying far more for than any other district and why aren't costs monitored as compared to other districts costs?

Vet, I wasn't going to respond initially, but after your second question for Chris, I feel I must.

I certainly agree your question has merit. My point is what is it any taxpayer or individual can expect anyone on the school board to do, how much additional effort to exert, when they don't get paid, they attend meetings for free, giving their time freely? That is the real question you are asking.

My position is in the ideal world, we'd have school board members who were world-class bench markers, whom knew and did a thorough analysis of the top districts in Ohio, and other states, and implemented constantly best practices, including best practices associated with driving down operational costs.

Candidly, there are a few districts that do have this type of mindset. They hire a superintendent who may be motivated just on his own, or at the board's direction, to drive the heck out of waste and costs.That is not to state the MCSD board could not ask for the same measures, but there are just to many issues to deal. One has attendance problems, discipline, athletics, state compliance, hiring/ firing, retirement, substitution (personnel), and many, many issues.

In summary, I just don't think you can beat up on the local board. Are there a few that should be off the board, maybe stayed too long? Surely. In utopia, would it be an additional asset to have every member a Black Belt in process improvement and continuous improvement guru? Of course. But will that happen? No.

To alter the school districts upon reducing costs, increasing performance, that is driven by the Governor and the state, and trickles down. Many districts could consolidate resources, and manpower.  Think of a school district as a hospital. Districts throughout Ohio have redundancy, including of course, MCSD. It is analogous to every hospital having their own MRI machine, instead of sharing, but that is the manner Ohio is run and is funded.

Your point was on roughly $100.00 a day for substitutes is much too high. Ohio offers through its teachers union, one of the most generous medical benefit packages and time-off arrangements on the planet. For example, if you have a new born, you get your 6-8 weeks off. If your spouse wants to do a medical leave to be with you during the time after the baby is born, you simply take off. Your job is protected for a year after. I don't believe IBM nor P & G provide that. But, that scenario creates a need, and do others, for substitutes. Teachers get il, they have short term and long term disability needs. Teachers have babies, and so on. If a sub taught 5 days a week, 4.3 weeks a month, times 9 months, they make $20,000. I don't consider a Costco cart pusher salary, to be outrageous.

Your obvious pt is why is Middletown paying 18% more than other districts? Well, the question becomes, are there are abundance of subs in Middletown, awaiting a call...or do they come from outside the area? I seriously doubt if Middletown uses more or less subs than other districts. Could it be those that do sub choose another district? Maybe---but usually substituting gets you in the door for a full-time position, and if you evaluate MCSD payroll metric, its about at the mid-pt for pay, better than many local smaller districts, not as grand as Mason. Just in the mean. Does Middletown have to pay more because of its urban nature---potential for violence, other problems? Perhaps. Does Hamilton have the same problems at $85.00 a day? Perhaps.

I'd focus efforts to have the Governor reduce waste and get costs down in the school system and the state universities. I've said a few times, Clinton's former staffer, Erskin Boles, did that when he was at UNC- Chapel Hill. He brought in McKinsey when he ws President, and they re-engineered every process, driving out tens of hundreds of $ Mm in waste. That's why UNC-Chapel Hill is a top 5 state school, and the cost is 30% of what Miami at Oxford to be.

In utopia, all school board members would be Black Belts. In MCSD, that's just unrealistic. The issue is not the pay of subs, the issue is why are not costs being driven downward throughout the state of Ohio in public education. There are trees, and there are forests. Move back up the to root of the problem and gaze at the forest, not the trees and the substitute teachers simply a small part of the ecosystem.

   

Vet,

I used to work at PWC with a team of 7, that would go in large F100's for 3 months, take apart every bolt and process, and we'd walk away on average of $875 Mm in cost savings. We'd start high, and then go low, including the elimination of redundant Wall Street Journal subscriptions. So good, in fact, we were written up in Chainsaw Al Dunlap's book, Chainsaw, who finally crashed and burned at Sunbeam as CEO.

But, you can't expect non paid, board volunteers Vet, to be bullish on micro-economic expenses. It doesn't work effectively, and there is a component of morale boosting and supporting the teachers and administrators they must also balance.

I do not believe Mr. Fiora was slighting you nor avoiding your issue. His message was they are cutting redwoods now, ergo, higher contribution of paid medical, holding pay rates, and in time, will get down to surplus rubber bands and how many erasers should be in storage. Heck, they haven't even gotten down to the iPads and fuel allowance for those driving to and from school yet. Patience is a virtue.   .     .



 

The article said that Hamilton Schools also pays $85/day.  This would equal the highest rate in Butler County. The headlines and article were misleading in its reporting. (Not for argumentative purposes, but for clarity and fairness.)    chmoore