Reader comments
6 districts giving substitutes raises

It is about time! It looks like school boards and administrators are beginning to understand the economic laws of supply and demand. Perhaps this understanding will also apply to dealing with the shortage of full time teachers as well. There was a shortage of elementary teachers this year and so the governor helped several districts hire teachers from Mexico.

One of the problems with the Murray School District is the lack of insentive NOT to use sick leave. Murray does not reemburse teachers for unused sick leave, but instead offers a $75 stipend if you don't use any sick or personal leave during the year. That obviously is a slap in the face. Instead, Murray offers unlimited sick leave. Since there is no insentive ($75 is hardly an insentive) for teachers not to use the leave, unfortunately teachers will use as much as they want which will cost the district a day's pay for the teacher in addition to a day's pay for the sub. In the long run, I believe the district pays more. Jordan district finally got a clue and offered teachers a substantial reembursment for not using sick leave. As a teacher in Murray who has never used a sick day or a personal day in nearly a decade, I think it's about time to fairly compensate those of us who are actually saving the district thousands of dollars. Many teachers use sick days like it was going out of style, so where's the fairness in that? Why should I even bother getting out of bed in the morning if I suddenly feel a "cold" coming on? Oh yeah...it's the students i'm responsible to teach.

I'm a little concerned about Murray Teacher who does not know how to spell the word "incentive" and in fact misspells it several times!

Then, "Certified Sub", you'll be glad to know I don't teach English or anything to do with grammar. Perhaps you should, instead of being a sub. My Doctor makes more spelling mistakes on one simple cold prescription. Don't worry...i'm not too concerned about that...nor should you be.

I think that this is a great way for people like me, who are looking into teaching, to get a feel for the atmosphere with out having to take a huge pay cut. Better pay for subs will increase subs and eventually increase teachers.