This is going to be a long one folks and I expect the normal rhetoric telling me so will follow in the posts. I've read a lot of longer ones browsing the web. Some over 300 pages. So, if you don't want to read it I suggest you stop here.

On the other hand, if you have nothing better to do, if you want food for thought or just want to read some science or mathamatical fiction dabbled with a little bit of truth, then proceed.

However, this opinion post is not absolute in any way shape or form. It is nothing more than a hypothetical, speculative possiblity of maybe a million others that it could be. This one takes it to a basic possiblity and figures and postulation from there. It is not true or meant to be true in any way shape or form. However the numbers do bring forth and enlighten us to a suprising observation that may just raise an eyebrow.

These figures came directly to me from the current Treasurer of the Streetboro City School District which you can query him of these figures at your leisure.

This is the pay for Substitute Teachers for days while they are employed and working for our district. It does not specifiy whether these are days consecutive or cumulative. It is how it was reported to me and if you need to know that, please contact the Tresurer of the school district.

1 to 15 days receives $84.74 a day

16 to 30 days reveives $94.90 a day

31 to 45 days receives $105.08 a day

46 days or more receives $115.24 a day

Is the frugal part the fact that we pay $5.00 a day less than other districts that pay $120.00?

Total for 15 days service $1271

Total for 15-30 days service $1423

Total for 30-45 Days of Service $1576

Daily wage for Subs from 46 60 days (15 day period) $1728

In thirty days the substitute has made 2694.00

In forty five days the substitute has made $4170.00

From 46 days to 183 the total is $15,903.00

Total for the 9 months (183 days), of work $20,073.00. For 9 months work this comes to $2230.00 a month on average.

Now for the hypothesis or speculation or what ever you may want to refer it to:

If I wanted to play around with these figures then I would take the total cost for a single substitute teacher ($20,073.00) and divide it into $518,000 (the total our district paid for substitue teachers last year), and I get 25.8 teachers that were absent.

Imagine, enough money was paid out to equal replacing 25.8 of our Teaching Staff for a full 183 days for each one!

If it does anything at all, it boggles my mind. Many variables would have to come into perfect alignment for this to work for my hypothesis. Again folks, this is just speculation.

So, if there are exactly 25.8 teachers that did miss all 183 days of school this year, the numbers would work. However, the odds of that happening are probably greater than hitting the six digit lottery. It would be interesting to get the exact numbers and the total breakdowns that accumulated a sum of $518,000.00 in substitute pay! Wouldn't that be AWESOME?

It probably would open a lot of homes. Could you imagine the coronary's people would be having?

Continiuing on, that means some subs didn't replace just one particular teacher for any length of time. They probably substituted for a variety of teachers and or positions. Meaning there is no way this sub could work in the absence of just one teacher (highly unlikely).

There were more teachers they replaced than just that one. The variables at this point could be just about anything you would want them to be and the fact remains that there will be a great many more than just 25 teachers who had a sub.

My guess, and this is ONLY a guess but I think the number would be up around 110 a year at some time or another had a replacement come in or maybe every teacher in the district. It would be interesting to know how many teachers had perfect attendance last year. Subtract that number and you will get the real number of how many teachers missed a day, or two, or several or many each year.

The question is "Why did the sub replace the teacher in the first place", "Did we have that many teachers who were sick or on FMLA?"
Even if just 25 teachers did miss every day of the school year, that would be way too many teachers for a whole school year (I have missed about 8 in the last 30 years).

How can our children receive a quality education if that many days had substitute teachers who may or may not know the subjects they are teaching? How do they teach those courses they are not familiar with?

If 110 teachers missed that is costing on the average $4733.00 for each teacher ($518,000 divided by 110).

If the median Teachers wage is $1073.00 a week (assuming the median wage approx $56,000 / 52 weeks a year), then the Teacher has cost the their students 4.41 weeks of professional instruction and had added an additional cost to the district by having the pay the wage of the substitute. Teachers can take personal days, sick days and/or possibly a vacation day to keep from not getting paid on the days they were absent which in turn still costs the district money.

If I took the highest wage that we would pay a substitute teacher, I would arrive at a conservative number that shows how may days were missed by teachers during the entire school year. That number is 4,494 days out of the school year. There's only 183 days in a school year. Can some one tell me if I messed up on that one, it seems like quite an awful lot of days($518,000.00 divided by daily wage for a substitute teacher of $115.24 a day). Of course this is a guesstimate and is probably a conservative number (Of course there is the possiblity that the district hires so many substitutes is that they are trying to be frugal with our money by insuring that if we have enough substitues very few if any would ever achieve more than 45 days whether they were accumulative or consecutive, there is that possibility of course, that didn't come out as being sarcastic did it?)

The basic observations that I see from the above hypthosis is disturbing to me. Think what you will or can postulate on your own ideas or figures but any way you hash it the ideas and possiblities that come up are most likely going to be worse than what I came up with.

The daily wages for substitutes is an accurate number(s). The Median wage for teachers in Streetsboro is close to within $1000.00 yearly plus or minus ($56,000.00) a year.

I have derived at a speculation here which one could assume that on average the student loses 4.41 weeks of professional instruction from their assigned instructor per year (some more some less, think about that one).

A fact, the total cost to the district for Substitute teachers for 2008-2009 was $518,000.00

Speculation, the teachers days missed could probably be a paid day off for a variety of reasons.

Even if the teacher wasn't paid it still cost us for the Substitute the day the teacher was absent.

4.41 weeks is equivalent to more than a whole month off in a school year.

Of course, the 4.41 weeks is an assumption, a speculation, a whim, or whatever you want to call it, however it is still probable.

I'm sorry but I don't see this as frugal spending in the district. It appears to be more of an abuse. How could we have spent so much and how much education was missed if the cost for substitute teachers was so high?

We are told the levy is for the children to receive a quality education and the materials they need.

The funding provided for substitute teachers could have been the extra funds we could have used for books, transportation, aides, and many of the other items they are eliminating if the levy fails.

It won't pay for all but it could be a good start.

What I know so far is they spent $1.4 million over the forecasted revenues for 2008-2009 and the cost of the substitute teachers was $518,000.00 of that number. The students still have outdated books, K-8 school children are still paying fees, and as far as I know the course fees were not reduced in the high school (the latter two they assured us would occur if the 2007 levy passed), and a quality education by the teacher who was hired by the district to perform the task is not alway there.

The increase in property tax if the levy passes is the same as a wage cut to the property owners and renters. Workers are already taking a reduction in wages, reduction in hours, layed off or just let go. Costs have gone up for many items to include insurance and the workers increasing co-pay contribution.

Teachers are protected by their union and Administrators by their contract, but they can collectively work towards assisting their district by freezing their wages or even taking a possible cut in pay. They can assure us their days of being absent will be greatly reduced.

Now how will they really spend the addition $4,011,000 dollars the levy will generate a year?

And where's the frugal part.

You all know, that usually I am not frugal with words. I admint it.

This was for your reading pleasure.

Martin Fleming