School district's fill rate for temp staff remains low
Teacher coaches who work at district headquarters were placed in long-term vacancies and were counted in the districts fill rate.
THE CHERRY HILL firm that places substitute teachers and other temporary staff inside Philadelphia schools has had a tough time of it since the start of the school year.
The company, Source4Teachers, hasn't been able to make good on its promise to reach a 75 percent fill rate on Day One in September. Instead, it began the first week of school by filling just 11 to 12 percent of the district's daily vacancies, which can number from 500 to 800 per day.
The rate had inched up to 24 percent as of last Thursday, according to the school district - but the district has been including its own staff in the rate.
Twenty-four teachers who work at district headquarters in professional development were deployed Oct. 5 to fill long-term vacancies in schools until Friday and were counted in the district's fill rate, said district spokesman Fernando Gallard. The educators - including seven professional learning specialists, eight instructional leadership coaches and nine teacher coaches - will return to their regular jobs today.
The fill rate is lower, at 20 percent, without the teachers, according to a Daily News calculation.
Gallard said the rate included the district teachers because that is the way it's calculated by the district.
"It's not a Source4Teachers fill rate, it's not a district-only fill rate, it's a fill rate for the School District of Philadelphia," Gallard said.
There were 662 positions open Thursday, including teacher vacancies, Gallard said. Of those, 157 were filled and 505 were left unfilled, he said.
The district teachers' work is important to their counterparts inside schools, said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
"It's unfortunate that the services that these teachers provide have been put on hold because of the district's failure to assign the appropriate number of teachers in schools to fill the over 200 vacancies that have existed since the first day of school," Jordan said.
Source4Teachers on Thursday offered pay-rate hikes to teachers and other staff willing to work in Philadelphia schools. In some cases, the salary rates are the same as those paid to daily and long-term substitutes previously when the district was in charge of filling staff vacancies. The pay increase is effective immediately.
Certified substitute teachers will earn $160.10 per day, as they did under the old system. Source4Teachers had paid them $110 each day. Uncertified teachers will receive $126.76 daily, up from $90. Long-term subs who have worked for the district will get $200 per day.
Source4Teachers has had difficulty attracting former district subs, in part because it originally offered pay rates significantly lower than what teachers were paid previously. The result has been fewer recruits and the low fill rates that have failed to match last year's 55 to 65 percent.
The company also vowed to increase the fill rate to 90 percent in January.
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