HUMBOLDT — Substitute teachers in the Humboldt school district can expect to earn a little extra pay in the next school year.
USD 258 Board of Education members approved a $10 per day pay increase for substitutes, raising the pay from $80 per day to $90. Half-day substitutes earn half that amount. The change will take effect for the 2018-19 school year.
The pay increase is needed to boost the likelihood that more people will join the district’s pool of substitutes and will be more likely to respond in times of need, Superintendent Kay Lewis told board members.
“There are days if I can’t get a sub in four phone calls, I’m struggling,” she said.
The district uses an average of 75 substitutes each month, Lewis said. Although substitutes are needed during times of illness, the district also needs to cover vacancies when teachers and staff attend professional development training or sporting and other types of events.
The increase is expected to add about $7,500 to the district’s annual budget.
Other area school districts pay their substitutes between $78 to $100 per day, Lewis said.
THE DISTRICT likely will consider a policy on whether to accept foreign exchange students after a parent brought the matter to the board’s attention.
Michaela Wille, a parent in the Humboldt district, wanted to serve as a host family for a foreign exchange student but said she was told the district did not have a policy to allow it. Although it’s likely such a policy will not be established in time to allow her to host a student this semester, Wille said she hopes the district will adopt one so other families don’t face the same problem.
Lewis said school districts have started creating those types of policies to make sure students from other countries are proficient in English and otherwise prepared to handle the district’s educational programs. It’s likely the policy will include requirements that a foreign student score at a specific level of proficiency on a standardized “English as a Second Language” test, she said.
Lewis said she has researched the matter and plans to seek further guidance from the district’s attorney and the state’s education board. She expects the local board could take up the matter as early as their next meeting, Feb. 12.
PICKLEBALL is coming to the Humboldt Elementary School gymnasium, courtesy of the Humboldt Recreation Commission.
The school district will allow the recreation commission to paint lines on the gym floor to create a pickleball court. The city’s recreation commission plans to offer the paddle sport, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis. Though the activity could begin as early as next month, it was not immediately clear at what times the sport would be offered, because organizers would have to work around activities at the school.
Pickleball courts also could be established at nearby tennis courts.
“I think it’s good for our community to be active and well. Maybe some of our kids and maybe some of our teachers will partake in this,” Lewis told board members.
PHOTO: New USD 258 Board of Education members, far left, Nathan Ellison and Helen Harrington, and other board members hear a presentation by Humboldt Elementary School Student Ambassadors Anna Heisler, Shelby Shaughnessy, Jack Broyles and Kyler Isbell. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
