Dayton Public Schools staff attorney Jyllian Guerriero said the reserve teachers group did not meet the three benchmarks set up in the temporary agreement — requiring them to fill at least 95 percent of all absences, make at least 50 members available daily and ensure that members commit to work at least 10 days per month unless not needed.
Hill has repeatedly said that Dayton Public Schools is the entity that hires substitute teachers, and DPS’ failure to add more teachers to the reserve pool was the reason DCRT didn’t meet required staffing levels.
Guerriero said as a result of a DPS hiring effort this summer, the district reached a peak of 180 substitutes available, which should have been enough to fill the required slots. School board member Joe Lacey said earlier this year that some substitutes refuse assignments to certain schools, especially in West Dayton.
Although Dayton’s school board had previously approved hiring Parallel Employment Group, they’ll have to execute a new contract next week.
“There does have to be another vote, because the (dates) of contract will be different,” Guerriero said. “The school board will act on a new resolution on Tuesday night at the business meeting.”
Ohio Education Association officials said existing DCRT members will be hired by PEG, but they questioned whether the Wisconsin group will have any more success achieving the 95 percent “fill rate” the school district is looking for, and at what cost.
PEG officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The PEG website lists a cost of $143 per teacher, per day, which is considerably higher than the $96 to $108 that most DCRT members made. PEG argues the savings come because schools no longer have to pay workers comp, unemployment and other taxes, plus the administrative costs of payroll, applicant screening and any risk or liability costs.
Asked whether Dayton Public Schools had an estimate of whether switching to PEG would save the district money or cost it more, Guerriero said she couldn’t say.
“The move is being made for service reasons,” she said. “The reason we even entertained this idea is because we just weren’t getting enough people to fill the absences. That’s our entire basis for the move.”
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