TCSS Approves Temporary Substitute Pay Raises, Expansion Projects

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Substitute teachers in the Tuscaloosa County School System will soon get a temporary bump in pay after the Tuscaloosa County School Board unanimously approved the pay raise measure during its regular meeting on Monday.

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The raise will be implemented March 1 and will last through the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

As it stands, non-degreed substitutes are paid $60 a day, while $110 is currently paid to retired Tuscaloosa County School System certified teachers and administrators or a former certified employee with 25 years or more teaching experience in the Tuscaloosa County School System who left the system in good standing.

The system's pool of substitutes has been hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic, leading many to call for pay raises to help attract more potential substitutes to fill the gap.

Here is a breakdown of the new daily pay scale:

"We’re happy to be able to give our substitute teachers a pay raise to help keep them employed assisting our teachers," District 2 Board Member Jamie Lake told Patch following the meeting. "This is just for the rest of this current school year. We will revisit and set a permanent pay scale for them before the next school year starts."

Lake also praised the board for moving forward on a wide range of large-scale construction projects that were given the green light by the school board on Monday.

"We are thrilled to be able to approve so many good construction, remodeling, and expansion projects," he said. "We’re trying to use taxpayers’ dollars to tackle our many challenges with school overcrowding and age of some of our buildings."

During the meeting, the Tuscaloosa County School Board approved ...

• Ellis Architects as the architect for the Vance Elementary School addition.
• Ellis Architects as the architect for the Myrtlewood School renovation.
• Ward-Scott Architects as the architect for the Northside Middle School expansion and renovation.
• Ward-Scott Architects as the architect for the Hillcrest High School Cafeteria expansion.
• Hall-Taylor Construction as the construction manager for the Taylorville Primary Activity Building.
• Harrison Construction as the construction manager for the Vance Elementary School addition.
• Harrison Construction as the construction manager for the Myrtlewood School renovation.
• Hall-Taylor Construction as the construction manager for the Hillcrest High school building project.
• Hall-Taylor Construction as the construction manager for the Northside building projects.
• Hall-Taylor Construction as the construction manager for the Northside High School baseball facility projects, not to exceed $80,000.
• Postponing changing Northport Elementary and Huntington Place Elementary to a K-4 school for one school year.

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