Substitute teachers seek respect, recognition

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Aug. 5, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

A small but determined band of substitute teachers from a half-dozen states met Sunday, looking for ways to bring respect and recognition for themselves and their thousands of colleagues nationwide.

The National Substitute Teacher Alliance, now in its second year with members from 20 states, met over the weekend at the Enterprise Library in Las Vegas to brainstorm, share strategies and set an agenda for activism. There were about 20 substitute teachers from Oregon, California, Illinois, New York and Florida.

With an increasing shortage of teachers across the country, substitute teachers are becoming even more important, said Shirley Kirsten, president of the alliance. At the same time, substitute teachers are still seen by everyone from principals to parents to their fellow educators as "second-class citizens," Kirsten said.

"You have to fight for every bit of respect, from the students, the other teachers, the administrators," Kirsten said.

Only two Clark County substitute teachers showed up for Sunday's event -- Richard Birmingham, who has been working locally for several years, and Miguel Lamadrid, who will begin substituting with the district this fall.

One of the most frustrating parts about working in Clark County is the randomness of some assignments, Birmingham said. He once spent hours on kindergarten lesson plans only to only to be told by the principal upon arrival that he would be covering a fifth-grade classroom instead.

"You don't have any say in the matter, you have to go where they tell you," Birmingham said.

Lamadrid, who has substituted at schools in Arizona, said his own son -- who will start the ninth grade this fall at a Henderson high school -- has come home complaining about substandard substitutes.

"One teacher put his feet up on the desk and told the kids they could watch the television," Lamadrid said with a shake of his head. "Some substitutes are doing the job for the kids, others because they think, 'Hey, 8 to 3, that works for me.' Not everyone is a professional."

The Clark County School District, the nation's sixth largest with 250,000 students and 14,000 teachers, has a pool of about 2,500 substitutes, according to district officials. Anywhere from 500 to 1,000 of them are called to step into the classroom every school day.

Clark County substitute teachers must have a bachelor's degree or at least 62 hours of college credits. The pay is $80 a day, less than the $151 commanded in Los Angeles or the $128 in New York, according to a survey by the American Federation of Teachers.

"Our substitute teachers are extremely important to the day-to-day operations of our schools," said Lina Gutierrez, executive director of the licensed personnel department for the district. "We wish we could afford to pay them more."

In some states, substitute teachers have successfully joined forces with the teachers' union, earning health care and other benefits, Kirsten said. More favorable conditions for substitutes would encourage retired teachers to come back to the classroom on a part-time basis, reducing the shortage of qualified educators, Kirsten said.

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, said there was some discussion about forming an alliance with substitute teachers several years ago, but the idea didn't garner much support from the union's membership.

The sparse local turnout at the forum didn't surprise Kirsten, who said tracking down substitutes is one of her organizations biggest challenges.

"They're invisible, isolated and invalidated," said Kirsten, herself a substitute teacher in the Fresno School District in California. "We have to get the message out to people that they have rights."