John Laubhan of Elgin has played the King of Arms at Medieval Times in Schaumburg and Sheriff Colt Justice at Donley’s Wild West Town in Union. But one of the most challenging roles he has assumed is a substitute teacher.
“I used my acting training, which taught me to slow down when I’m nervous,” recalls Laubhan of his first sub assignment. “I very, very slowly took attendance and looked over the lesson plan before saying anything. It worked; one kid raised his hand and asked, `You’ve been a sub for a long time, haven’t you?'”
Fifteen years later, subbing suits Laubhan because the hours usually don’t conflict with his other jobs–acting and writing. When they do, he tells the sub caller at Elgin High School, his alma mater, that he’s tied up.
“Available” and “able” are two qualities that make Laubhan the perfect sub and endear him to Bunny Hope, who heads the team of sub callers for District 46’s Elgin High School. The only problem with Laubhan is he cannot be cloned.
For a combination of reasons, the pool of substitute teachers is drying up, and the Bunny Hopes and their staffs are working overtime trying to recruit and retain subs from all professions to fill their rosters. The only common thread among Hope’s subs, who include ministers, firefighters and pilots, is they don’t have 9-to-5 jobs.
“It’s been a nightmare for about five years now,” said Hope. “Today, for example, we had 221 vacancies and didn’t fill 26.”
It’s a matter of supply and demand, say school administrators.
Thanks to the Baby Boom echo, schools are full and spilling into new schools. The sub shortage is a subset of a nationwide teacher shortage. According to the National Education Association in Washington, D.C., public schools must add 2.4 million teachers in the next 11 years to make up for teacher attrition and retirement and increased student enrollments. If many of the current class-reduction proposals became law, that figure could become 2.7 million.
The situation is no better at private schools. A spokeswoman for the Chicago Archdiocese, which oversees Catholic schools in Chicago and in Cook and Lake Counties, describes its sub shortage as “extreme.”
So recent education graduates don’t need to sub to fill their days until full-time offers roll in. Even December grads, who graduate out of sync with massive summer hirings, can step right in.
Also swelling the demand is the increased number of days teachers leave their classrooms. District 46 teachers, for example, can take 12 sick days plus three personal days per school year. But those numbers are compounded by the number of days teachers leave for professional development workshops.
“We’re often looking at 30 to 40 teachers out at a time for one workshop, and we have at least one workshop a day,” said Hope.
Draining the supply is a healthy economy, which means fewer out-of-work teachers and other professionals. More inclusion of special-needs children in classrooms calls for more hiring of teachers’ aides, many of whom used to be subs.
Fewer teacher retirees–another former, plentiful sub pool–want to sub to pad their pensions.
“Many are retiring at age 57 or 58 and starting new professions,” said Steve Caliendo, assistant superintendent for personnel at School District 101 (Batavia).
The result: Loyal, reliable subs such as Laubhan are scarce, and frustrated sub callers and principals are asking administrators to find them more subs and help them keep the rookies. Caliendo’s district is taking a proactive approach. In August, it held a get-together for veteran and potential subs.
“They talked about how to keep classroom control and set the classroom tone–things that trained educators know,” said Caliendo. “We hope to have another seminar next year, and we’re planning one in January just for people willing to sub in special ed, which requires them to deal with especially difficult situations.”
The McHenry County Regional Office of Education has such a gathering in the works too, said its regional superintendent, Don Englert.
“We’re planning it in conjunction with McHenry County College,” he said. His agenda is similar to Batavia’s, with classroom management and discipline among the hot topics.
Seminars are a start, said Geoffrey Smith, director of the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University, who teaches school administrators how to make their schools “sub-friendly.”
“Principals can make subs feel welcome, visit them during the day, assign them mentors, host recognition days, even buy them lunch,” he tells them.
Until the recruits outnumber the sub posts, it’s a seller’s market for those willing to be the Rodney Dangerfields of education.
“You can pick your school, your classes and how often you want to work,” said Hope. “Used to be, you couldn’t sub at your children’s school, but you can do that now too.”
Hope and her colleagues say they’re happy to usher sub wannabes through the application process. In Illinois, all you need is a bachelor’s degree in anything (not necessarily education) and a sub certificate, which you can get through your county’s regional office of education. The certificate is good for four years and costs $50 ($30 application fee plus $20 in annual registration fees.)
In many districts, subs don’t have to worry about Illinois’ “90-day rule,” which says no sub can work more than 90 days per district per school year. (Chicago is exempt.)
“The rule was put into place to prevent the schools from using subs as full-time teachers at sub pay,” explains Glenn Smith, director of field operations of the Illinois Federation of Teachers in Oak Brook, an 80,000-member union. “But many districts are simply ignoring this rule now that there’s a sub shortage.”
Subs who want to work full-time, with salary and benefits but without the responsibility of permanent classrooms, can become “building subs” at districts that have added these to the payrolls of their larger schools. Building subs arrive daily, without waiting for that 6 a.m. call, and fill in where needed.
Sub pay is still low–between $60 and $90 a day in most Chicago-area districts–but districts are adding bonuses for frequent subbers. For long-term assignments such as covering for teachers on maternity leave, many pay per-day equivalents of teacher salaries. Batavia, for example, pays $156 a day for assignments longer than 21 days.
To reach them, districts officials are placing newspaper ads, putting “subs wanted” posters in the schools and luring at-home parents through school newsletters. Paper-pushing administrators are morphing into enthusiastic cheerleaders. “Come to Batavia! It’s the greatest district in the world!” plugs Caliendo.
But their best boosters are their regular subs, such as Laubhan, who is a regular at Elgin High School.
“Some teachers like the challenge of middle school, where the kids are squirrels,” he said. “But I prefer high school, where they’re more mature and calm.”
Although Laubhan acknowledges he was the class clown when he graduated in ’72, he nurtures his reputation as a no-nonsense sub who doesn’t tolerate misbehavior.
“The kids see a new sub and figure it’s a free day,” he conceded. “But they know me and know my classroom is quiet. Sometimes they think there’s safety in numbers, so they try to act up as a group. Then I write up a few of them and they realize I’m serious.
“[Subbing offers] no benefits, no seniority,” he said. “But it gives you the opportunity to work with young people and really make a contribution to their lives. Don’t be afraid of the kids; they’re just people. They’re the same kids you see at the grocery store and at the library. You go there, so why not go to the school?
“All you need is a college degree and a sense of humor. You don’t have to know every subject; I still don’t understand chemistry.”
And, for those of you considering subbing in the high schools, here’s one more tip from the 6-foot, 2-inch, former Sheriff Colt Justice: “It helps if you’re big.”
