Substitute-teacher process changes at Austintown

By ELISE FRANCO

Austintown substitutes express concern with how they will be employed starting this school year.

AUSTINTOWN — The school district has decided to make some changes this year in how it employs substitute teachers.

Superintendent Doug Heuer said the school board has voted to bring in Renhill Staffing, a privately owned business out of Perrysburg, Cleveland and Fort Wayne, Ind., that works with school districts and businesses to take care of permanent and temporary staff placement.

Renhill’s job is to take over the training and staffing of substitute teachers in the Austintown Local School District. Heuer said no jobs will be lost by the decision, but only current subs who decide to sign with Renhill will be able to continue.

“We will not being employing subs on our own anymore,” he said. “If they want to continue to sub in Austintown, they’re going to have to do that through employment with Renhill.”

Heuer said current Austintown substitute teachers were asked to attend a recent Renhill orientation meeting at Austintown Fitch High School. Rachel Wixey, Renhill Staffing division president, explained what Renhill does for the district and how using the company will be beneficial.

Many of the substitutes present expressed concerns that because jobs will be assigned three different ways — through a personal call, an automated call and a Web site posting — those who don’t use a computer will be at a disadvantage.

Wixey assured them this is not the case.

“If you were to call in to the 800-number and log on the computer at the exact same time, you’d see the same listings for your preferences,” she said.

Phil Resch, a second year substitute, worked in the district for 39 years before retiring. He said he is wary of the new system but willing to give it a chance.

“I think we’ve farmed more jobs out of Austintown schools,” he said. “And we’ve lost out on the personal contact we used to have.”

Another concern is that relationships formed between the subs and school personnel who make the assignment calls will be lost.

“I think we’re all just going to have to try this out and see,” said Kim Coulter, who has been subbing in Austintown for one year. “The major concern is that the personal aspect of subbing is going to be lost, and that’s a major part of being a substitute teacher.”

Wixey said the teachers’ questions and reactions weren’t out of the ordinary.

“With every single district that we have technology in, it’s a matter of a few months, and they realize what it means for them, and they love it,” she said. “The initial reaction that those folks had is not uncommon.”

Wixey said the company does recruiting to build a list of substitute teachers. It also does background checks, makes sure all the teachers meet state requirements, and it works with them on comprehensive training. The only thing the school district will have to do is write a check to Renhill at the end of each month.

“We take the entire substitute process and manage it from front to end,” she said. “We do the absence tracking so we are able to provide substitute fulfillment, and process payroll and all other paperwork.”

Heuer said the program will be more than beneficial to Austintown because it will streamline the process into one central location, freeing up personnel within the school district to take care of other matters that require attention.

“We’re gaining additional time out of the school and treasurer’s offices because they won’t have to deal with all that paperwork,” he said. “It gives us time to deal with additional responsibilities, and we’re going to get a broader base of subs that will be of equal or higher quality.”

Wixey said since the 38-year-old company began temporary placement 10 years ago, it has never lost a client.

Although Austintown is the eastern-most district to use the service so far, she said several others in the area have expressed interest but was not at liberty to say which ones.

Heuer said the cost to use this service is virtually the same as not using it.

“Essentially we will be paying the same rate to Renhill to pay the subs as we did to hire them internally,” he said.

The district previously paid subs $60 per day, with another 14 percent of that amount going into Medicare and the State Teacher’s Retirement Fund.

Heuer said the district will pay Renhill $75 per absence.

He said teachers will still make $60 per day, and 10 percent will go into the state required retirement fund, but Renhill will take over Medicare costs. After those costs, about $9 per substitute will go to the company.

“I don’t want to portray it as a cost-saving measure because it costs the same amount of money,” Heuer said. “But we are gaining back a considerable amount of time and costs lost from doing it internally.”

efranco@vindy.com