The Wilton-Lyndeborough School Board agreed to increase substitute teacher pay by nearly double its previous rate during its meeting Tuesday night, in a move to try to entice more applicants to their small pool of available short-term substitutes.
The board agreed to increase daily pay for substitutes from $65 per day to $120.
The board began their discussion regarding substitute pay during an emergency meeting last Thursday, where the board discussed possible solutions to an anticipated teacher shortage following the holidays, due to travel quarantines. Using short-term substitutes to fill the positions or monitor classrooms while teachers taught remotely from home wasn’t feasible, for the simple reason that the district doesn’t have enough substitutes available. In fact, the district currently only has two.
Part of the issue, Superintendent Bryan Lane told the board Thursday, is pay.
The board ultimately agreed Thursday to hire four long-term substitutes – which have a higher base pay, but are required to be certified to teach in the area they are substituting – to cover classes for the 28 school days following Thanksgiving vacation.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.