The Boulder Valley School District this week announced it would cut daily substitute teacher pay by $25 for the upcoming school year, after previously saying subs would earn less as part of an overall $5 million budget reduction.
The substitute pay rate for a full-day will drop to $125 from $150 last school year, while the half-day rate will go down to $68 from $80 last school year. Retired Boulder Valley teachers and long-term substitute teachers, who make a little more, also will see a $25-a-day decrease.
“When funding gets tighter, sometimes difficult choices need to be made,” Boulder Valley spokesman Randy Barber wrote in an email. “In BVSD, our focus is always driving resources to meet the needs of students, which is why we look to be strategic in the allocation of funding by looking at all levels of the organization.”
He said the reduction in substitute pay is expected to save $1 million. District officials in May shared the need to cut a total of $5 million to afford a 4% cost-of-living increase for regular employees this school year.
The district’s substitute teachers are required to have a current Colorado teaching license or a Colorado Substitute Authorization, as well as a bachelor’s degree. They don’t have union representation and aren’t part of salary negotiations.
Boulder Valley officials said there are typically 300 to 380 people in the district’s substitute teaching pool. The district has continued to struggle with substitute shortages the day before and after holidays, officials said, but has improved its rate of filling substitute requests on Fridays to around 90%.
Mary McDaniel started her teaching career as a substitute in 1992, earning $100 a day. She got a teaching job in Boulder Valley, retired after 30 years in 2020 and decided to substitute teach again in the spring of 2021 to supplement her retirement income — earning the same $100 a day she had in 1992.
Between an ongoing shortage following the pandemic and teachers unable to return to work right away following the Marshall Fire, Boulder Valley temporarily raised its sub pay to $175 a day and $200 a day on Fridays. When it was lowered back to $100 a day in the fall of 2022, substitute teachers were joined by teachers and parents in protesting the decrease.
Classroom teachers said not having substitute coverage meant they were giving up their planning time to cover their colleague’s classes, which was leading to burnout. In response, the district raised the pay rate again.
“It was still lower than lots of other districts, but it felt good,” McDaniel said.
Then last school year, she said, Boulder Valley cut the daily pay rate by $10. Now for next year, it’s down another $25.
“You just feel really undervalued,” she said. “It’s just not good all around.”
She said she’s hearing from other substitutes that they’re going to look for jobs in better paying districts or for better paying jobs outside of substitute teaching. For herself, she said, she’s already committed to substitute teaching for 20 days next school year. Though she will make about $500 less than last school year for those days, she plans to keep her commitments.
But for the future, she’s not sure if she can afford to continue as a substitute and is considering applying at the Boulder Bookstore.
Based on an eight-hour day, a Boulder Valley substitute teacher would earn $15.63 an hour — a few cents less than the minimum wage for unincorporated Boulder County. Starting in January, Boulder County raised the minimum wage for its unincorporated areas to 15.69 an hour, with additional increases each year that end with a $25-an-hour minimum wage in 2030. The state minimum wage is $14.42.
While sub pay rates vary among neighboring school districts, the St. Vrain Valley School District paid slightly less last school year at $120 for a full day and $60 for a half day. St. Vrain Valley’s daily rate increases after subs work for 20 days or more, to $130 for a full day, and again after they reach 80 days, to $140.
