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PLAINS TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board agreed to a settlement with one teacher it fired, and took several steps — including another settlement with nine furloughed teachers — to combat a chronic shortage of substitutes.
With board member Ned Evans voting no, the board approved 8-1 a settlement giving former shop teacher Brian Hampel one year’s salary to settle a grievance Hampel filed after being fired in September 2016. Hampel was accused of serving as lookout at Coughlin High School while then-teacher Stephen Stahl had a sexual encounter with a student at the school.
Hampel gets $84,000 for dropping further legal action.
The board also approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the union related to nine teachers who were part of a large furlough in May 2016. Most teachers who lost their jobs have moved on to other work, but the nine will be hired as per-diem substitute teachers receiving the substitute pay of $100 per day and full medical coverage. They will also get sick and personal days.
The agreement continues until “the furlough list ends,” meaning they have full-time work. The district also promises they will be entitled to be recalled to full-time work when positions open.
The nine teachers are assured of daily work because the district has been struggling with a serious substitute teacher shortage. In March 2016, the board sought proposals from substitute teaching firms, later hiring Substitute Teacher Service to help fix the problem.
For each substitute teacher handled by STS, the district pays $130 — 30 percent above the district’s per diem rate for substitutes. STS was supposed to hit a “fill rate” of 85 percent, meaning it would fill 85 percent of the needed substitutes. But that hasn’t happened. Prior to hiring STS, the district was barely hitting a 70 percent fill rate.
The board also approved a deal with S4Teachers LLC, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to provide additional substitute teachers. Superintendent Brian Costello said S4Teachers is being brought on to supplement STS.
Both STS and S4Teachers handle training and make sure teachers have required clearances.
The deal with S4Teachers is more expensive per substitute than the STS plan. The district will pay either $158 or $132 per day depending on the specific status of a full-time substitute. But while STS charges a single $130 rate, S4Teachers charges less for half-day substitutes, either $79.14 or $65.95 per teacher per half-day.
And the board accepted the resignation of Coughlin High School Principal Patrick Patte, who has taken an administrative position with Hazleton Area School District. As Costello had promised upon learning Patte was leaving, no one is being hired to replace him. Instead, one assistant principal post at Meyers High is being eliminated, and six current administrators are being shuffled around into “acting” positions, with the Heights Murray Elementary principal being moved to acting principal at Coughlin. The “acting” titles include no immediate pay raises, Costello said.