'Teacher Crisis' Prompts Pay Increase For 1 Hillsborough Substitute Teacher

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The Hillsborough Board of Education(BOE) is taking measures to retain and attract new candidates amid a "teacher crisis and shortage."

"We are in a teacher crisis and shortage there is no other way to put that," said Superintendent Michael Volpe.

The BOE voted, not unanimously, at Monday night's meeting to approve increasing the substitute teacher rate of pay to $195 per day specifically for a Spanish teacher vacancy at Hillsborough High School.

This resolution raised concerns by some at the meeting.

Henry Goodhue, president of the Hillsborough Education Association, said while he understands the district's reasoning for the pay increase for one substitute, he also felt this would create a problem between those who have a certificate and those who don't.

"I do think it is being done with the best of intents but we are possibly disincentivizing people from being long-term substitutes and exasperating a problem where we have a much larger one," said Goodhue.

Volpe said the reason for increasing pay for this one position was that this substitute was not only filling a true vacancy, but doing more work than a typical substitute by grading papers and planning lessons.

"That's the reason why we have this one off for these situations that we do want to make sure we keep these people who are maybe doing more work than a typical per diem substitute," said Volpe. "It is the best solution right now for our students, for keeping our schools staffed, as well as trying to develop the next generation of teachers - some of whom are substitutes and are trying to get those certificates."

Cynthia Nurse was the only Board member to vote against the resolution saying she had some struggles with it.

"The reason the way I am voting is we could come together and be a little more uniform about this in the future. Because I think the way it is presented tonight it will be case by case and I don't think we can do that moving forward. … I would rather have a plan for in-between people," said Nurse.

Board member Jane Staats said she understood Nurse's concerns but felt this needed to be passed now.

"I think we can work on setting a policy but that can happen at a glacial pace. Considering the urgency of the need here I do support this resolution," said Staats.

Additionally at the meeting, the Board voted unanimously to approve the agreement with the Central to Jersey Program for Recruitment of Diverse Educators (CJ PRIDE) program which will help to recruit more staff to the school.

"Hopefully that can help us bring more candidates here in general," said Volpe, who sits on the Executive Board of the CJ PRIDE.

Goodhue commended the Board's decision to re-enter the program.

"I think it is a valuable program and hopefully we can start seeing a greater volume of candidates, diverse candidates, and candidates who are reflective of our student population," said Goodhue.

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