I got called in for a half-day today. The thing is, the teacher who had to leave had a student teacher that was teaching anyway. My job was to sit there and “supervise”, which is what the teacher would have been doing. But the student teacher is tons more qualified than I am. I stopped by the office to ask if they had anything else for me to do. They said that I legally had to be in the room to supervise because the teacher was uncertified.
There is, of course, no level upon which this makes sense. But bureaucracy is, of course, its own reason.
I would say “at least I got paid for it,” but on half-days, once you take out 38% in taxes, $3 in union dues, and $15.50 for gas, I made $4.24.
Good grief.
Comment by Black and Blue Man — February 10, 2012 @ 10:50 pm
I hope you didn’t have to pay for lunch. They you’d be in debt.
Comment by Kirk — February 12, 2012 @ 12:54 am
Subs have to pay union dues? WTH?
Comment by Abel Keogh — February 12, 2012 @ 8:44 pm
Kirk, school system lunches are $3.75. There’s also post-work coffee. I end up in the red.
Abel, though not actually a member of the union I am paying dues to, they handle the retirement fun. At the rate I am going, in 150 years I will have earned enough to get a piece of that pension…
Comment by trumwill — February 12, 2012 @ 9:44 pm
I would bet that somewhere in the agreement between the Redstone School District and Redstone State University there is a sentence that states: Student Teachers shall not be left in sole charge of any classrooom. Even a substitute teacher outranks a Student Teacher. After all, you are getting paid to be there; he was paying to be there.
Also, some states require a substitute teacher to be a college graduate, which would also disqualify the Student Teacher. NJ only requires 60 college credits.
Comment by ScarletKnight — February 13, 2012 @ 4:29 pm
When I was in third or fourth grade our teacher was out sick for a couple of weeks, and we had Miss Sweeney as our substitute. She was a retired old maid schoolteacher, nothing surprising there, except for that fact that she was 94 years old and had retired more than 30 years earlier. She had begun teaching when there were no pensions to speak of and had no choice but to keep substituting in order to survive.
Comment by Peter — February 13, 2012 @ 4:45 pm
Knight,
That’s a good point. Arapaho doesn’t require college degrees for subs, but they suggested that I would probably never get called if I didn’t have one. And, however much more qualified the student teacher was than me, I did have that I guess.
Peter,
One of the teachers at the middle school is in her 37th year of teaching. She taught for 19 years in another state, but had to leave an abusive situation and essentially start from scratch on her pension in another state. She’ll qualify for an Arapaho pension in a couple of years.
Comment by trumwill — February 14, 2012 @ 1:52 am
How much do you get paid for a full day, if you don’t mind me asking?
Comment by Pierre Corneille — February 19, 2012 @ 9:40 am
About $24 after tax/retirement/gas.
Gross pay is $70 for a full day and $35 for a halfday.
Comment by trumwill — February 19, 2012 @ 1:31 pm