Substitute Teachers in Santa Fe

SANTA FE LOCAL IN TRANSITION

2006-03-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

Elections will be held at the end of March 2006. This means a restructuring of positions and a shift in issues, which includes the issues associated with substitute teachers. To stay up to date, go to our local's online newsletterby clicking here.

SEND US YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT SUBS

2006-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Are you keeping a log of your experiences with subs? When you have them, and when you don't? Call Laura Hlink at 474-8679.

ADVOCATE FOR HIGHER SUB SALARIES

2005-12-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

IF YOU'D LIKE TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR HIGHER SUB SALARIES, GET IN TOUCH:

Send an e-mail to NEA-SF president Laura Hlinak at nordfang@aol.com

NEW CAMPAIGN FOR 2006

2005-12-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

The campaign for a sub in every classroom takes on a different form in 2006. We need to support efforts of Santa Fe Public Schools to pay subs a living wage. If you'd like to work on this campaign, contact NEA-Santa Fe president Laura Hlinak at 505-474-8679.

And keep up to date with the NEA-SF Actionline, both online and in a hard copy. We're doing an innovative employee rights training, starting in January, in order to bring everyone up to speed with the changes in the collective bargaining contract.

Kepp the substitute issue alive! Every classroom deserves a qualified substitute!

To check out our online NEA-Santa Fe Actionline click here!

If you aren't a NEA member, ask the Association Rep in your building to enroll now.

To access our NEA-Santa Fe Employee Rights web resource click here!

In January we'll begin a pilot project involving conference calls as part of our employee rights training. Check our Employee Rights web blog for more details.

Happy New Year!

KELLY SUBS LOSES CONTRACT

2005-06-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Santa Fe Public Schools board of education did not renew the contract of Kelly Services during its June 2005 meeting. The contract, which had been temporary, caused considerable public controversy during the nine weeks it was operative. The school district cited financial reasons for not renewing the contract.

An article in the Albuquerque Journal (June 9, 2005) reported that Kelly's best fill rate was on the last day of school when the firm filled 44 of 48 substitute positions. Its lowest fill rate was during the sixth week of the contract when 77 of the 141 openings for subs were filled.

NEA-Santa Fe released the results of its survey at the June 2005 board meeting that showed dissatisfaction among school employees with Kelly's performance. NEA-SF president Laura Hlinak noted that the same problems remain with attracting substitute teachers because of low wages. It is expacted that some substitutes, who would not work for Kelly because of privacy issues, will return to the district.

UPDATE ON KELLY SUBS

2005-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

NEA-Santa Fe is distributing a survey to collect information about the experiences SFPS employees are having with substitute teachers assigned by Kelly Services. It was distributed with the April-May issue of Actionline, the publication of NEA-Santa Fe. Because a blog like this is public, some people might not feel comfortable posting. However, the NEA-SF survey is confidential. Please fill out the form, or send your comments to Laura Hlinak at Capital High School.

NEA-Santa Fe continues to monitor the Kelly contract. Your feedback and comments are important.

2005-04-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

TAKE NOTE OF NEW E-MAIL

2005-04-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

If you have a question about using this blog, or you'd like to help in the effort to convince Santa Fe Public Schools to end their contract with Kelly Services and support a living wage for substitute teachers, contact us at:

kellysubs@yahoo.com

A LIVING WAGE FOR SUBS IN SANTA FE

2005-04-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

The core issue about Kelly Services taking over the assignment of substitute teachers in Santa Fe is that of a living wage. Because SFPS hasn’t provided a living wage for subs in the past, there has been a chronic sub shortage.

Now that Kelly Services has taken over the assignment of subs, the Living Wage ordinance in Santa Fe applies, and those subs with a high school diploma will now receive $60 a day, rather than the $55 provided for in the initial contract. This is a back-door approach to solving the problem, and at a large cost.

It’s estimated that SFPS will be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to Kelly Services just to administer the program. And this means a living wage that could have gone directly to subs, now goes into Kelly’s pockets.

We support $85 a day for subs with college degrees and $70 for subs with high school diplomas. It’s time that SFPS come to terms with an issue that affects everyone: administrators, teachers, educational support personnel, students, and the community.

Subs with a college degree will be getting $65 a day, while subs with no degree will receive $60. This isn’t solving the problem of a living wage. It’s only making it worse because the injustice is only compounded.

We don’t know how many substitutes with a college degree are refusing to sign up with Kelly, but two have posted on this web site so far. Because subs have no protections and no due process rights, at least two other subs have posted using the anonymous feature for posting.

It’s an injustice that there’s only a $5 differential between subs with a high school degree and subs with a degree. This means there is more of an incentive for high school grads to substitute in the district’s public schools. Subs with college degrees appear to be looking for employment elsewhere.

If you believe SFPS should end the contract with Kelly Services at the end of the two-month trial period, post your comments here. NEA-Santa Fe has gone on record to oppose the extension of the contract with Kelly Services.

If you missed the initial announcement in the Santa Fe New Mexican about Kelly Services taking over the assignment of substitute teachers for Santa Fe Public Schools, go to:

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/10945.html

Add your comments after each posting on this blog and tell others about www.kellysubs.blogspot.com

With your help, we'll keep this issue alive!

NEXT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

2005-03-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

To read comments or post your comment, go to the end of a posting where you see "comments." Click on it and add your observations or opinions.

And plan to attend the next school board meeting on April 5, 2005 at 610 Alta Vista. Meetings start at 4:30 p.m.

KELLY SUBS TAKE SANTA FE BY STORM

2005-03-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

The news of Kelly Services and its contract to take over the assignment of substitutes has taken employees of Santa Fe Public Schools by storm. The contract was signed with Kelly and then announced without the subject being aired in public. We checked with the SFPS board secretary and nothing about Kelly Services either appears on the board agenda in 2005, nor has it been spelled out in the SFPS minutes over the past few months.

Don’t conclude that there’s any impropriety associated with the Kelly contract, only that the way in which the issue was handled bypassed public discussion. If school board members approved the resolution (and it’s likely they did), it’s likely the issue was slipped in under a pile of other papers without too many people noticing.

NEA-SF president Laura Hlinak was as surprised as anyone when a reporter called and asked her for a comment for a New Mexican article published on February 25, 2005. She had no prior preparation about how to respond to the issue other than the fact that substitutes are a problem. Hlinak regularly attends school board meetings, no small accomplishment because board sessions can last for hours in any particular month. She hadn’t heard anything brewing. No rumors. Nothing.

So without the benefit of pubic discussion before the fact, a spirited discussion about Kelly Services is taking over informal channels, including this blog. The failed system of recruiting substitutes, a growing problem that Santa Fe Public Schools has for years been unable to handle, is now debated, not in front of the school board, but in the newspapers, public school employee lounges, and in homes all across Santa Fe.

Who stands to gain? Who stands to lose? How much will this cost the district? There are answers to some of these questions and not for others. One fact remains. More questions are being asked right now than there are answers available.

The miserable state of affairs relative to a lack of substitute teachers has been a sad secret within Santa Fe Public Schools for years. At any given school on any particular day, the lack of teachers causes havoc. If there’s one thing where everyone can agree, it’s that something had to be done.

Teachers paid a price when they weren’t in school and they returned to find their classroom in a shambles either because of the lack of a substitute or a sub who didn’t follow the lesson plan. Students lost, if because of the lack of a sub, they were assigned to another classroom to essentially sit in the back of a room and miss out in lessons all day.

Principals lost because problems associated with the lack of substitutes fell into their laps daily and was yet another chronic problem without a solution. Parents lost because they sent their child to school with homework and the substitute either couldn’t follow up on the lesson or didn’t understand the lesson. There are instances over the years when students simply boycotted school when their teachers were sick or out of school for some other reason.

And now underpaid overworked substitutes are about to lose control over their personal information if they sign up with Kelly. Some subs will be out of a job because they refuse to sign up with Kelly Services altogether. Some of these substitutes have had a relationship of long standing with Santa Fe Public Schools, but they’re closing the door behind them. The bottom line is that they don’t want to work for Kelly.

Who stands to gain? Kelly Services is expected to carry a satchel of money to the bank totaling at least $200,000 each year and possibly more. Santa Fe Public Schools stands to gain because district officials have turned the issue of substitutes over to Kelly and they can wash their hands of any more problems.

Over the years there have been ample opportunities to correct the situation. An ad hoc committee of substitute teachers met with the district over a several year period. The group recommended increasing sub salaries. They contributed considerable time and energy to the process; as a result, salaries increased slightly but not enough to compete with other districts and with the times.

Substitutes are not part of the NEA-Santa Fe bargaining unit, so the district has continued to sweep the matter under the rug until Lee Ann Buras, the district’s director of Human Resources, entered the scene. Buras is spearheading the current substitute effort. She was recently quoted in the Santa Fe New Mexican relative to substitutes:

“Kelly is going to be owning them as an employee. They’re going to be cutting the checks. Substitute teachers have to follow (Kelly’s) procedures.”

Buras told a New Mexican reporter that the district needs 80 substitute teachers in any given day.

The comment about ownership by Lee Ann Buras didn’t sit well with many subs who don’t like the idea that they’ll be owned by anyone, especially at the low pay of $55 a day without a college degree and $65 per day with a degree. They say that a retirement program and a health plan might sound attractive at first glance, but they are not comfortable with the other parts of Kelly ownership, such as turning over personal information.

The pay for subs in Santa Fe is lower than that of nearby school districts, yet instead of raising the pay and making subs a priority, SFPS has taken the easy road of outsourcing substitute services.

The sub program with Kelly Services at the helm goes into effect on March 28, 2005. Then it’s a wait and see game. It’s assumed that if the uproar dies down, Kelly will have its contract secure for the future. But if flames of dissent don’t die down, it’s possible the SFPS policy makers will reconsider.

Ask any building inspector how often a local town asks a builder to tear down a structure erected without a building permit. Precious few. Once Kelly has its foot in the door, it will use elephant glue to make sure the contract doesn’t budge. So it’s up to you, the sub, the teacher in the classroom, support personnel, administrators, parents, teachers, students and concerned community members to stand up and be counted.

What do you think? What are your experiences with the current sub program? How will you be impacted by Kelly Services taking over? What do you see as the advantages or disadvantages? What are your recommendations? If you look into the future five years from now, what is the crystal ball revealing about Santa Fe Public Schools?

If you are an employee of Santa Fe Public Schools, make sure you’re reading and responding to this blog, “Kelly Subs in Santa Fe” at home on your own time and at your own computer.

This blog addressing the sub issue in Santa Fe Public Schools is an experiment to collect information and allow the public to discuss issues outside the regular forum provided at school board meetings. If Santa Fe Public Schools doesn’t allow discussion at school board meetings about issues affecting everyone, then other forums must be created.

This blog is maintained and updated by volunteers committed to the democratic process in public education. We’d love to hear from you.

Kelly Subs in Santa Fe

2005-03-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

You're invited to contribute to this web site, "Kelly Subs in Santa Fe." Send us your thoughts, experiences, and opinions.