Salem-Keizer Public Schools will no longer directly employ their substitute teachers and staff, the district’s executive team, led by Superintendent Andrea Castañeda, decided. Starting this fall, the approximately 1,200 people who fill in for teachers, instructional assistants, custodians and oth er school staff members will be employed by the national, private staffing firm, Edustaff.  The district sees the move as a necessary attempt to address staffing shortages, but some substitutes feel that this decision comes at their expense, according to Ross Swartzendruber, a Salem-Keizer substitute and government affairs chair of the Oregon Substitute Teacher Association.  Do you have questions about Salem-Keizer Public Schools? Are there education topics we should be covering? We want to hear from you. Contact reporter Eddy Binford-Ross: [email protected] or 503-400-5654. Swartzendruber said that substitutes are frustrated that they’ll lose access to the state’s retirement system for public employees and they’re worried about maintaining relationships with their preferred schools.  Make Salem Reporter your trusted source for accurate, independent local news – every day. Stay informed and connected to your community. Subscribe today. They are also disappointed that they weren’t informed directly by the district when it was first considering potential outsourcing plans, learning in passing through a school board director instead, Swartzendruber said.  “None of this was ever talked about with the substitutes,” Swartzendruber said. “The big thing I’m concerned about is how these things happen behind closed doors, with no public involved, and they might not be the best for the students.”  Salem-Keizer decided to contract with Edustaff in an effort to increase fill rates, which are the percentage of vacancies that are filled by substitutes each day, Castañeda said in a May 13 budget meeting. On any given day last school year, substitutes filled approximately 92% of vacancies from licensed staff — teachers —  and 50-55% of vacancies from classified staff — administrative staff, bus drivers, instructional assistants, custodians and more.  “Whenever there is an unfilled position whether licensed or classified, what happens is the school scrambles to find a way to cover that class, and it is often a piecemeal scramble that requires individual teachers to give up their prep period,” Castañeda said in the May 13 meeting.  In the fall, any Edustaff employee will be able to sign up to substitute in a Salem-Keizer public school. This includes current Salem-Keizer substitutes, as well as people who have been subbing for surrounding schools, as Edustaff contracts with a majority of Mid-Valley districts.  It also means that substitutes who were historically employed by Salem-Keizer will have the option to substitute in any district with an Edustaff contract.  District leaders hope that by drawing from a larger pool of employees, they won’t have as many daily vacancies, according to Aaron Harada, the school district’s communications director. With nearly half of classified staff positions going unfilled each day, the district is hopeful that their contract with Edustaff will increase the number of substitute instructional assistants, as well as custodial and administrative staff.  “It is our classified fill rate that we are most eager to move forward,” Castañeda said in the May 13 board meeting, adding that these positions are important because many of them form the backbone of support for elementary education.  While this decision was made to increase fill rates, Harada said that the district is not anticipating significantly higher costs other than having to pay more substitutes each day as fill rates increase.  The district will pay Edustaff a management fee of 25.4% of gross substitute wages. In the 2026-27 budget, the district allocated $7,382,704 for these wages. If actual costs align with planned spending, the district will owe Edustaff approximately $1.875 million.  The fee to Edustaff will be largely offset by a reduction of payroll expenses, according to Harada. The district will continue to pay substitutes’ daily rates, but they will no longer have to cover their payroll taxes, sick time and retirement contributions, he said.  Last school year, the district paid $1.2 million to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, commonly referred to as PERS, for substitutes, money they won’t be paying to the state now that the substitutes are employed by Edustaff.  Harada emphasized that substitutes will not take a pay cut in this outsourcing, instead their wages will increase slightly with cost-of-living. Licensed substitutes will make $253.60 a day, with an increase of approximately $30 daily for postings that are more than 10 days. Classified substitutes are paid between $19.96 and $25.47 an hour, with custodial staff and instructional assistants on the low end of that range and sign language specialists making the upper limit.  Substitutes will also gain access to health insurance and a 401(k) as Edustaff employees, benefits they did not have working for Salem-Keizer, according to Harada.  However, substitutes will lose access to the main benefits program they were eligible for: PERS. While they will retain their PERS accounts, Salem-Keizer will no longer pay into the system, so their base balance will not increase.  Angela Hale has been a substitute since 2019 and is in Salem-Keizer high schools nearly every day that students are in classrooms. She’s one of the approximately 9% of substitutes who worked enough hours in the classroom to qualify for PERS.  “It’s illogical. Are any of them willing to give up PERS for a 401(k)?” Hale asked. “There was a statement made about how important substitutes are for the functioning of Salem-Keizer and nothing they did shows that they believe that.”  Through PERS, employees get a monthly pension paid out over the rest of their lives after retirement, which isn’t guaranteed with a 401(k). PERS funds are also tied to the state, giving them more stability, although less room for high growth, than retirement options tied to the market, like a 401(k). Further, Hale pointed to a March court ruling in the case Debra Fery v. Oregon Public Employee Retirement Board, which found that Fery may be eligible for PERS while working for a school district through a third-party staffing agency. While the ruling only applies to Fery, substitutes said it could open the door for them to receive PERS contributions even while employed by Edustaff, potentially reducing the district’s savings.  READ IT: Debra Fery v. Oregon Public Employee Retirement Board Hale and others are also concerned that it will be more difficult for them to maintain relationships with the schools they have been placed in historically. The district said that Edustaff will not affect school-substitute dynamics.  “Since there is no change with how substitutes will interact with schools, they will still be able to maintain the meaningful relationships they have already established with specific schools,” Harada said in an email.   However, substitutes question if this will actually be true during the school year. With more people competing for the same pool of spots, they worry that they will get beat out for their typical placings.  For those like Hale who rely on substituting as their primary form of employment, this increase in competition, as well as options, may drive her to grab jobs outside the district.  “You’re going to want to take the first job that comes up just so you get one for the day, so it could be anywhere,” Hale said.  When the same substitutes can teach in the same schools, they’re able to build relationships with students, create continuity and develop an understanding of how those classes operate, the substitutes said.  “The students really want to have familiar faces in there and that’s what was happening,” Swartzendruber said.  While some substitutes are frustrated by the change, they are still planning to continue working in Salem-Keizer schools.  “I just got approved by Edustaff, so I’m looking forward to working in the district. I’d rather be working for the district instead of a third party,” Swartzendruber said.  Contact reporter Eddy Binford-Ross: [email protected] or 503-400-5654. The post Salem-Keizer Public Schools outsource substitute teachers to private staffing firm appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less