Livingston Parish Public Schools Actively Seeking Teacher Substitutes for the Classroom
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release – March 25, 2021
Contact: Delia A. Taylor, APR at 225-931-0286 or taylormedia11@gmail.com, Superintendent Joe Murphy at 225-686-7044 or alan.murphy@lpsb.org, or Humans Resources Director Bruce Chaffin at 225-686-7044 or bruce.chaffin@lpsb.org.
Livingston Parish Public Schools Actively Seeking
Teacher Substitutes for the Classroom
LIVINGSTON, La. – Providing a quality education to students begins with the preparation and skill of the teacher in the classroom. But on those days when a teacher cannot be in the classroom, schools are faced with finding qualified substitutes to ensure that learning continues.
That task has always been a challenging one for most schools, but with the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the task has become most daunting this schoolyear. A higher teacher absence rate has occurred due to close contacts with positive COVID cases or teachers becoming positive themselves. At the same time, fewer people have signed up for the substitute teacher pool because of personal health concerns and limitations, and not wanting to be in proximity to persons outside their “inner circles.”
“In Livingston Parish, over the past five years, we were able to cover about 95 percent of all our teacher absence days with qualified substitutes in the classroom. This school year that coverage rate did drop because of the COVID pandemic. That has not meant that classes have not been covered, as our district has utilized all our resources to ensure that each class has been filled with quality instructors,” Livingston School Human Resource Director Bruce Chaffin said.
“We recognize this shortage has been hard on our employees, and we are optimistic that we can begin to increase our substitute teacher pool to help ease the load,” Superintendent Joe Murphy said. “With more people receiving the COVID vaccination, and many people in need of employment, we want to encourage them to consider taking on the rewarding position of being a substitute teacher for the remainder of this schoolyear and into the next.”
Chaffin said the district has already increased its substitute pool by 100 registrants since January 1, 2021, but he said more qualified people are needed and the district is launching a publicity effort to increase the number of available subs in schools. Each school will receive signage and information that will be made available for public viewing on the campuses.
“Our primary goal is to ensure our students are safe and that learning does not ever stop,” Chaffin said. “The teachers and their schools provide our substitutes with pre-planned assignments and lesson plans to help them manage each hour of the school day.”
Substitutes typically work seven and a-half to eight hours per day, and they are responsible for up to six to seven classes per day, depending on the grade level and that school’s class configuration, Chaffin said.
The daily pay rate for substitutes in Livingston Parish depends upon the person’s level of education: a substitute with a four-year college degree and a state teaching certificate can receive $77 per day; a substitute with a four-year college degree, but who is non-certified for teaching, can earn $70 per day; and a substitute with an associate’s or high school degree can earn $60.50 per day.
Chaffin said interested persons can apply online through the district’s website, www.lpsb.org. A link to the online employment application form is available on the home page. He noted that applicants can limit their availability to specific schools; for example, only their children’s schools; or they can limit their availability to certain days if they have obligations on the other days.
Qualified applicants will be required to provide their fingerprints and go through a background check. This process is usually completed in about one week.