By Morgan Womack
Capital News Service

Nicole Timmer was a substitute teacher for Grand Haven Public Schools until the pandemic hit.

“It wasn’t worth it,” she said.

As the need for substitute teachers increased after the pandemic, private placement companies have become more essential to grow school districts’ sub pools.

 

Timmer, a former stay-at-home mom, was trained by Edustaff, a private staffing service based in Grand Rapids. Its website says the company works with more than 550 K-12 districts nationwide.

However, she and a handful of other Grand Haven subs were “grandfathered” into the substitute teaching system. She used Edustaff’s portal to see her assignments, but there was a special asterisk next to her name meaning she was a district employee.

 

With the asterisk came the perks of being involved in the school district on an ongoing basis.

Feeling like you are part of a team

She was able to form relationships with other teachers, be involved in her children’s education and choose whom to substitute for.

Before the school year started, she often had a calendar full of dates she was needed in the classrooms.

The full-time teachers “were spending the most time with my children during the day,” Timmer said. “So it was a really cool insider look to see what was going on in the times that I wasn’t around. Being a stay-at-home mom, it was very interesting.”

She said she was lucky to be able to follow her kids as they got older.

Her brother, Joe Nelson, taught at the Grand Haven High School. She once texted him after having a problem with one of his students.

“A kid was being kind of mean to me, and I literally just took a picture of him and sent it to Joe and said, ‘This kid’s being a jerk,’” Timmer said. “Joe emailed him right then and there, (saying) ‘Stop being a jerk.’”

 

Timmer said she’s still friends with many teachers she subbed for, and having such connections helped solidify her position in the district.

 

For other outsourced substitutes working for Edustaff, Timmer said it could be difficult to develop and maintain such relationships in an unfamiliar district. But she said these subs should also make an effort to “make a name for themselves.”

Filling the substitute teacher need

Brian Dunn, the Edustaff director for Michigan, said the company has seen a 10% spike in teacher absences this school year.

“We’re also filling in more classrooms, which is exciting because it means more people are working more often,” Dunn said.

He said anyone who meets the 60-semester credit hours and background check requirements can apply to Edustaff.

Stay-at-home parents are the biggest group of Edustaff’s subs, Dunn said. Other large groups include retired educators and college students.

While Edustaff services can fill some gaps left by the teacher shortage, some districts are reaching out to education colleges to ask if their students can fill paid long-term substitute positions.

Reaching into the future educators pool

Marcia Fetters, the director of teaching education at Western Michigan University, said long-term sub positions can be valuable for some students because of the pay.

 

Most internships for education majors at Western are student teaching positions with a mentor teacher. Fetters said she encourages traditional student teachers to train through Edustaff so they can cover the classroom if the mentor is absent for the day.

 

Long-term sub positions are different because students don’t have a full-time teacher to coach them in the classroom.

 

Fetters said Western often works with a district to set up additional mentoring opportunities for students who take on long-term substitute jobs.

“Long-term subbing as an internship has its pros and cons,” Fetters said. “I’ve worked with students who have done it both ways. Some excel at it and some just want a little bit more support.”