Sunday's Internet Edition, September 07, 2008.

As a result, more non-certified teachers, without education degrees, are being used in the classroom.

Under a change made a few years ago, people with a four-year college degree, and at least a 2.0 grade-point average in college, can become credentialed to work as a substitute teacher in West Virginia, even without a teaching degree.

These substitutes are sometimes referred to as “5202 subs” after the state policy that allows them into the classroom.

According to Kathy Whoolery, personnel director for Roane County Schools, 5202 subs must take an online course from West Virginia University that lasts 18 clock hours and pass a test on each section of the course. They must also do four hours of classroom observation and undergo a background check by the FBI that includes fingerprinting. The course costs $155, Whoolery said, while the background check is another $49.

Candidates are also interviewed like any other potential employee.

“I’ve turned a couple away because I felt they were someone we didn’t need in our school system,” Whoolery said. As an example, she cited a candidate who came from another county after being rejected by that county. Whoolery said the woman had taken several years to finish her degree and had retaken several courses multiple times before getting the minimum grade to pass.

Whoolery said Roane County currently has a list of 47 approved substitute teachers, which includes 18 credentialed under Policy 5202. She said the list has included people retired from business, a person trained in physics, a lawyer and retired military personnel. In addition to retirees, several are recent college graduates who do not have education degrees.

“We have a lot of graduates in business administration,” she said. “Unfortunately, if you live in Roane County and you’re 22 years old, there’s not a lot of opportunity in business administration.”

While 47 substitutes sounds like a lot, Whoolery says the number is deceiving.

Substitutes are not obligated to work. Many retired teachers want to work only a few days a month, Others will only work at certain schools or on certain grade levels. She said one teacher on the list would work only in kindergarten classrooms at Spencer Elementary, while another only teaches kindergarten at Reedy.

Some also do not want to travel to a school at another end of the county.

“Unless you have someone who lives in the Walton area,” Whoolery said, “they may not want to drive to Walton to sub, especially if it’s just for half a day.”

She said there are only 17 on the list not involved in a long-term substitution who will work at all schools in the county, and two of those have other part-time jobs.

Some on the list also substitute in other counties, which limits their availability.

Whoolery said education graduates just out of college used to spend a year or two on the substitute list before landing a full-time job. With the teacher shortage, she said that is no longer the case.

She said when the legislature decided to give teachers three days of their choosing off per year, called personal leave days, that also increased the need for substitutes. She said the county has 221 professional employees.

“Multiply that by three and you’ll understand the problem,” she said.

Of the 47 substitutes on the list, two are unavailable until further notice, and six more are in long-term situations, filling in for teachers on maternity or medical leave.

Whoolery said pay also is an issue when it comes to attracting people into teaching.

“There’s not anybody out there who doesn’t feel teachers are not paid equitably,” she said.

In Roane County, a substitute without experience and a bachelor’s degree is paid $104.91 per day. An inexperienced person with a master’s degree receives $115.02 per day. Substitutes on long-term assignments can be paid more.

Bill Chapman, principal of Spencer Elementary School and a former principal at Spencer Middle School and in Wirt County, said the 5202 subs, which he calls formula subs, have helped to alleviate a serious problem.

“Until we had the formula subs, we were having to double-up classrooms, and that’s not a good thing,” Chapman said. “It still happens, but not as often as it did.”

Illness and personal days are not the only reasons teachers are absent from the classroom. Chapman said more professional development, or teacher training, is taking place during the school day.

In fact, scheduling substitutes is such a routine thing, at Spencer Middle and now at Spencer Elementary, Chapman uses an automated dialer to contact substitutes.

“It’s fully programmable,” he said. “It goes through the list and calls people and if a teacher is available, they just have to press 1.

“It saves a lot of time looking for substitutes,” he said. “It gets old sitting there dialing and dialing.”

A teacher who learns after the school day is over that they can not be at work the next day can even call the auto-dialer and it will find a substitute for them.