Edmond Public Schools Increases Incentives For Substitutes

A metro school district needs immediate help filling substitute positions. 

The Superintendent said even if a substitute position isn’t filled someone has to watch students. They hope a partnership with a local bank will help incentivize people to substitute more often. 

“What we have found is we have a lot of substitutes, but they may just substitute a day here or a day there. We are thankful for that, but we want to get them to substitute more often, if possible,” said Angela Grunewald, the Edmond Public Schools Superintendent, 

With hopes of retaining more subs an Edmond based bank is stepping up. 

“Five hundred dollars a day will be given to a person who substitutes that day. Names will be thrown into a pool and drawn randomly,” said Bill Roberts, A Senior Vice President at Kirkpatrick Bank. 

“We have wonderful community partners that know how important it is to have quality schools and they are willing to invest in that,” said the Superintendent. 

The drawing will happen every day for the next 10 weeks. This money will be added to their daily rate and incentives already in place. 

“Maybe providing them with a little more incentive if they are on the fence on whether or not they wanted to come in and substitute. Hopefully, that will help alleviate some of the strain and stress on the system right now,” said Roberts. 

As it stands, those who substitute for 15 consecutive days get an extra $125. EPS said Fridays are the hardest to fill so they’ve added an extra $20 for those that finish off the week in the classroom. 

“Usually with our substitutes we had a fill rate around 80% and we were always worried because we wanted our positions to fill and right now our fill rate has dropped down to 30%,” said Grunewald. 

Teachers are filling in on their prep periods and administrative staff are stepping into the classroom. While times are tough EPS is grateful for community support. 

The first drawing will be Friday January 21st. EPS hopes this provides immediate relief for those already cleared to substitute while other applications are being processed.