The New Bloomfield R-III School Board of Education voted 4-2 to approve an agreement between the district and Kelly Educational Staffing, a substitute teacher service, at its meeting Thursday night.
Superintendent David Tramel said he has heard good things about Kelly from other districts who use them.
"A lot of schools now are going to them for their substitute teachers," Tramel said. "The Affordable Care Act has forced a lot of schools into using outside agencies to contract their subs."
Contracting out for subs takes the cost of benefits for the subs off of the districts.
Kelly will provide the district with substitute teacher services for an additional 39 percent of what the district currently pays its subs. The company calls substitute teachers to fill in and provides all of the human resources work associated with the substitute teachers.
Kelly pays the subs because they are the company's employees - not New Bloomfield employees. Kelly then charges the district the amount needed to pay the subs the district's sub rate plus 39 percent.
Tramel looked at the number of times the district has used substitute teachers the past several years and estimated that 39 percent would come out to be about $10,000-$12,000 a year. Meaning, the district would spend that amount more a year to use its subs.
School board member Debbie Cuno, who voted against the board entering into the agreement with Kelly, said she doesn't see the sub service as something the district needs right now.
"I have two things that gnaw at me about this. Number one is the $12,000 on top of our current expense," Cuno said. "The second thing is I understand we can drop it at anytime but reality would probably say that's not going to happen. Because once you contract something out ... it's too much trouble to get the horse back in the barn."
School board vice president Shawn Cockrum pointed out that the district may see other savings with Kelly Services that are difficult to calculate.
"There is added value, so what is that added value worth to us in dollars and cents," Cockrum. "The value that we can't really put dollars to is the headaches that it (the district's current substitute system) causes."
He also pointed out that the district's current employee who is responsible for calling subs would have some of her time freed up to do other things for the district. Cockrum said that value is also something the board can't put a dollar amount on.
Kelly Educational Staffing will approach the district's current subs about becoming Kelly employees. That way, the school district can still keep its preferred substitute teachers. However, a larger pool of subs will be available to the district if it has trouble filling a classroom with its preferred subs.
Teachers can post on Kelly that they need a classroom filled for a particular day and they can either list the need for a sub for the district's entire sub pool or they can select a specific sub they would like to request. When an opening becomes available, subs get a notification via phone of the opening.
The agreement with Kelly that the board voted to accept Thursday night excludes subs for special education paraprofessionals, teacher's aides who help out in classrooms. Special education para subs will still be district employees, which means the district is responsible for their benefits.
Because of Kelly Service's no-touch policy, Tramel recommended to the board that the district continue to employee special education para subs. Special education paras often need to help students in ways that involves touch. The district has to provide the students what is outlined in the IEPs, a guideline of learning needs for a child with a disability.
"If it's outlined in an IEP that a para is with that child, someone will be with that child," Tramel said. "Many times that means a teacher gets pulled off to be with that child (if a para is absent and a sub is unavailable)."
Tramel said he has spoken with other school districts who use Kelly - some who use the sub service for everything and some who use it for everything expect special ed paras. He told the board that school districts who use Kelly for everything sometimes have trouble finding subs for their special ed paras.
"For an additional cost of $12,000, we're not getting rid of the entire problem," Cuno said. "If it was an all encompassing program, I think I would feel more positive about it."
The board's vote approved the district to start using the service in mid-March. The district is hoping that transitioning into using the sub service this spring will be better than waiting until the beginning of the school year when everything is new.