Lyons School District 103 pays about 50% more than other local school districts for substitute teachers, district reports show.
Part of the reason is that D103 pays substitutes more than other districts in the area, officials said. But the main driver of costs is that D103 has outsourced its substitute teacher hiring to a private company, Kelly Education, a division of temporary help giant Kelly Services.
According to district records, D103 pays Kelly Education a 34% markup for each day a substitute teacher works. A D103 substitute teacher is paid $150 a day, more than in any other local elementary school district, but the 34% markup for Kelly Education increases the district’s total cost to $201 a day for a substitute teacher.
For comparison: Most districts in Illinois hire their substitute teachers directly and pay no markup. A substitute teacher earns $120 a day in Brookfield-LaGrange Park District 95, $125 a day in Riverside Elementary School District 96 and $135 a day at Komarek School.
Supt. Kristopher Rivera did not respond to requests for comment by publication.
Under the contract, the substitutes are employees of Kelly Education, not the district. District officials pay Kelly and then Kelly pays the substitutes. Kelly also recruits them and handles the paperwork and other administrative chores.
Long-term substitutes earn $257 a day, which increases to $344 with the Kelly fee. Kelly can also provide substitute Early Childhood Education teachers, and for that service, it charges a 45% markup, bringing the daily pay to $217.50.
Kelly also supplies fill-in paraprofessionals and custodians. Substitute custodians are paid $19.62 an hour with a 38% markup, bringing the district’s total to $27.08 an hour. Substitute paraprofessionals are paid $17 an hour with a 36% markup, bringing that cost to the district to $23.12 an hour.
Kelly is not the only private company that provides workers to District 103. At its Jan. 23 meeting, the school board approved an agreement with Chicago-based The Stepping Stones Group to provide specialist services for students who have behavioral problems, those on the autism spectrum or who have developmental issues. The Stepping Stones Group charges $100 an hour to provide a board-certified behavior analyst to the district. A registered behavior technician costs $65 an hour, a behavior technician is $57 an hour, a behavior interventionist is $51 an hour, and paraprofessionals, $42 an hour.
Substitute teachers were hard to find during the height of the COVID pandemic when many regular subs, who are often older, didn’t want to be in a classroom of children. But local school superintendents say that the sub shortage has now eased some.
“We probably don’t have as many as we would like but we’re able to cover our vacancies,” said District 96 superintendent Martha Ryan Toye.
District 95 superintendent Mark Kuzniewski said that they have had more people on its substitute teacher list this year than the district has had in the past couple of years.
“I think I heard we have maybe two or three more people who have put in an application within just the last week where we would go a whole year without seeing anyone apply so it seems like people are coming back,” Kuzniewski said.