For several months, school officials in Rutherford County have had to pull resources like education assistants from classrooms to make sure every room has a teacher.
"That person is there to be an extra resource for the teachers and for the students, so they're losing that instruction advantage," school spokesman, James Evans said.
On average the school system has seen a nine percent teacher absentee rate daily, 11 percent on the high days. However, with 417 subs there's just not enough people to go around.
"We want to have a pool of about 600, that's what we're aiming for. We think that would help us to always have enough," Evans said.
Financially, members of the school board have already been looking at ways to give pay raises to substitute teachers come next school year.
"The board is looking at increasing the rates and hoping that will help. One is for $5 raise and one is for a $10 per day raise, and that will put us a little more in line with some of the districts around us," said Evans.
Currently, certified subs in Rutherford County make $65 a day, $60 if they're not certified. For comparison, subs in Murfreesboro make between $72 and $75, and in Metro Nashville, that number goes up to around $84 a day.
"If they get three job offers they're going to go with the one that pays the most," Evans explained.
Evans also sited an improving job market for the lack of interest in substitute teaching.
"We're seeing fewer and fewer people signing up with the staffing agency to do substitute teaching," he said.
If you're interested in subbing for Rutherford County Schools, click here.
