‘Patience doesn’t pay our bills’: CCSD subs haven’t seen promised pay increase
Substitute teachers in the Clark County School District have yet to receive a pay increase promised two months ago for taking assignments at high-needs schools.
A handful of substitute teachers at high-needs schools provided public comments on the topic for Thursday’s school board meeting.
Those working at Transformation Network schools aren’t receiving the higher pay rate announced in September because a district payroll code hasn’t been created for those assignments, substitute teacher Brandon Summers said in a written public comment.
Summers — a professional violinist who has been a substitute for about six years — called the situation “disappointing,” but also noted that he was “far from surprised.”
“As we enter the holiday season, subs who were banking on the extra compensation will have to scale back and many may struggle,” he wrote. “This economy has been unkind due to months of hyperinflation and it is troubling that CCSD has dropped the ball again at a critical moment in time.”
In September, the district announced it was increasing pay at “select campuses.” Substitute teachers are supposed to make $225 per day at 23 elementary schools that are part of the Transformation Network.
The district also said substitutes can make $215 per day at seven middle and high schools that have high vacancy rates.
Pay for other substitute teaching jobs ranges from $110 per day for standard day-to-day roles to $200 per day for eight-hour vacancy positions at Title I schools, which have a high rate of students living in poverty.
In a second written public comment, Summers included a copy of a Thursday memorandum from Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Cedric Cole to school principals, administrative school secretaries and office managers about substitute teacher pay.
The memo says that substitute teachers will see the higher pay rate beginning later this month but notes that details haven’t been finalized for retroactive pay.
New substitute teacher time reporting codes for Transformation Network and high vacancy schools have been created, Cole wrote.
New codes were available to use starting Monday and substitute teachers will see the new rate on their Nov. 29 paycheck for dates worked between Nov. 13 and 21.
“We are still in the process of the second phase of this implementation which is the retroactive pay effective September 18, 2023,” Cole wrote. “Further communication, next steps, and the effective date this will take place will be forthcoming.”
The district provided the same dates in a Monday statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Retroactive pay is “currently being implemented by our Human Resources Division,” the district wrote.
‘Patience doesn’t pay our bills’
The district’s decision to increase pay at certain schools was well intended and the pay bump was significant, Summers wrote in his public comment. “But CCSD has a habit of doing things prematurely and half-baked, and that is currently what has been reported by substitute teachers.”
Substitute teachers haven’t received the immediate pay raise they were promised for working at Transformation Network schools, Carisse Mak said in a written public comment.
Substitutes have been told for months that a pay code needs to be created and to be patient, she wrote. “This is withholding pay from employees.”
Rachel Ricks said in a written public comment that she enjoys substitute teaching and loves the students she instructs.
“Being a substitute is actually my second job which I chose to do because I have 5 kids in school and I’ve seen first hand how much help teachers need in the classroom,” she wrote.
Ricks said she was excited for the pay raise but hasn’t been compensated at the promised rate.
“This is a huge failure on the part of CCSD,” she wrote. “Subs and teachers need to be paid sustainable and respectable wages. This is wage theft and it is unacceptable.”
Allison Toney said in a written public comment: “It’s important that this Board understand how serious pay issues continue to plague the substitute teacher ranks. We routinely have to chase our pay at each of the sites we work because jobs are coded wrong, or pay isn’t approved on time.”
Substitute teachers have been asked to be patient, she wrote, but “patience doesn’t pay our bills.”
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.
Substitute teachers in the Clark County School District say they haven't received a pay increase announced two months ago for taking assignments at high-needs schools.
