MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / June 23, 1999

RESERVE – The St. John the Baptist Parish School System, looking for away to solve problems it has had in its substitute teacher program, is looking into assigning that program to an outside agency.

Director of personnel Alfred Donaldson made a recommendation for information only to the school board at its meeting Thursday night, assigning the substitute program to the Kelly Educational Staffing Substitute Teacher Staffing Program.

Donaldson said the service, which began in 1997 with the Gulfport School District, would be a benefit to the school system for a number of reasons.

Those benefits include ensuring that teacher openings are filled with qualified substitute teachers and the elimination of the administrative burden of scheduling substitute teachers from principals and other administrative staff. Kelly would also provide the screening of applicantsand would assume responsibility for all pay, taxes, unemployment and workers” compensation.

The program would also benefit the substitute teachers. Substituteswould get pay checks once a week instead of once a month. They wouldalso qualify for vacation and holiday pay and would have the option of continuing to work on Kelly assignments during the summer.

Donaldson noted that it has been difficult to recruit, train and maintain enough substitutes to meet the needs of the school system and said the Kelly program would go towards helping to solve that problem. Theestimated cost of the program is $40,000.

“To me, it’s a good system to try to solve our substitute problems,” Donaldson said. “Not only for the school system but also for oursubstitutes.”Board member C.J. Watkins asked that the matter be brought to the nextpersonnel board meeting. Board member Gerald Keller also asked Donaldsonto meet with the teachers and principals involved.

In other business, the board unanimously approved a request to authorize the administration to advertise for bids for one mini-bus and five regular replacement buses. The cost would be approximately $285,000 fromConstruction funds.

The board also approved a change in the summer work schedule for the District Office and principals. Those personnel will have a four-dayschedule, Monday through Thursday, working from 7 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. witha 30-minute lunch. Those hours will be effect July 5-30. The offices willbe closed on July 9, 16, 23 and 30. The regular schedule resumes August 2.

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