Organization aims to secure better treatment for substitutes

A critical shortage has given substitutes more leverage than ever, says the head of a new national alliance.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
Shirley Kirsten never gave much thought to substitute teaching.
She's a graduate of the renowned Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a concert pianist. Music was, and still is, her passion.
But 22 years ago, she moved from her native New York to sunny Fresno, Calif.; she got married, had six children, divorced, and in 1997, began substituting in the Fresno schools.
"It seemed to be a great transitional kind of occupation for me," said Kirsten, who also has a master's degree in education from New York University. "I needed to get back in the work force."
But she didn't like what she saw: Substitutes were degraded by principals, parents, pupils and fellow teachers; they had no rights; and their $65-a-day average salary hadn't increased in a decade.
"That's when I decided they needed a union," she said.
Organizations: Seven months later, Kirsten founded the 650-member Fresno Area Substitute Teachers Association, one of the first independent substitute-teachers unions in the nation.
Last summer, she helped form and was elected president of the National Substitute Teachers Alliance, the first national advocacy association for substitutes.
NSTA, which has representatives in 20 states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania, conducts its second annual national conference in July in Orlando, Fla.
"There's an extraordinary need to organize because we are kind of the invisible work force, and we're quite detached from each other," said Kirsten, who substitutes three or four days a week in Fresno. "This organization attempts to foster communication among substitutes across the country on behalf of increasing respect for their educational contributions."
Kirsten said the continuing demand for and shortage of substitutes has given substitute teachers more leverage than ever.
The shortage has translated into increased activism among substitutes, especially in California, Florida, Indiana and Michigan, Kirsten said.
Who's unionized: Still, only about 5 percent of the estimated 400,000 substitute teachers in the nation are members of labor unions, and most of them are in large, urban districts, Kirsten said.
In Ohio, teachers unions in Dayton, Cincinnati and Toledo have represented substitutes for several years, but it's not a growing trend.
"It's been a struggle for the organization to survive because of the nature of the membership," Ann Bayou, a consultant with the Ohio Education Association, said about the 300-member Dayton Chapter of Reserve Teachers.
She said the union has helped to improve evaluation procedures and win job protection for substitutes, as well as daily salaries of $92.
Locally: Sherri Morgan is president of the 822-member Youngstown Education Association, the largest teachers union in the Mahoning Valley. YEA doesn't represent substitutes.
Morgan said the union gets many calls from substitutes seeking help, especially in disputes involving pupil discipline.
"They really want the representation, I know that," she said. "It would give them a little more security. Right now, basically, they're left up to the whim and wishes of whatever the board or administration tells them."
Ben McGee, Youngstown schools superintendent, said a substitute-teachers union could be an administrative nightmare.
"I would hope the idea wouldn't crescendo and grow," he said.
Marilyn Crain of Vienna, a veteran substitute teacher who now works mostly in the Jackson-Milton schools, said she doesn't see the need for a union.
"I'm just glad to be able to get back into the teaching field," she said.
Kirsten said that's the type of attitude that allows schools to take advantage of substitutes.
"Everyone complains about the shortage, but no one really has a commitment to do much about it," she said.