May 8, 2008

In this time of TAKS tests, shrinking budgets, and failing schools, every day counts in Texas public schools. But on any given day in Corpus Christi ISD hundreds of full time teachers are missing from the classroom.

We discovered that so far classroom substitutes have already filled in for teachers more than 29,000 times this school year.

By year's end, substitutes will cost Corpus Christi taxpayers 4.3 million dollars, enough money to hire about 100 full time teachers.

According to the school district the majority of CCISD teachers in the substitute pool are certified teachers. But, Corpus Christi substitute teachers need only need 60 college hours.

The position pays about $120 a day but that depends on what kind of work the sub will be doing.

A Kiii News investigation discovered that the highest teacher absenteeism happens on Fridays and Mondays, and that more than 60 percent of the time the reason for the absence was an illness.

"Friday's are the worse day," said Michal Briones, CCISD's Chief Administrative Officer. He says a lot of teachers would like to take a three day weekend, others are involved in school activities that take them out of town on the weekend, or others are involved in staff development.

"We just get examples of just plain burnout," said Briones, as he explained what it might be like for some teachers.

"You get very tired, the kids are very challenging and towards the end of the year, you just are a little bit worn out, and I just need to chill, and Friday would be a good day to do that."

Still yet, there are those teachers who never miss a day. There's Carroll High School Geometry teacher, Jon Keith.

"Subs are good, but I don't think they do the same as the regular classroom teacher," said Mr. Keith. " They're (the students) used to me, and If I take a day off, I think they'll tend to take a day off too, mentally."

His students didn't take a day off mentally when we visited his classroom. They shouted out answers to questions. Many of them didn't slow down long enough for Mr. Keith to finish the question.

"Mr. Keith does a great job of explaining the problems, and keeping every body in line," says first year Carroll Student Kenny Klingerlsmith. "He never misses class. He's a great teacher."

Few people are qualified to teach what Mr. Keith does. His students realize it. We asked some what happens when a substitute fills in for a teacher.

"Tends to be a little more crazy, a lot more hectic," said student Ben Silva.

According to a recent Harvard study, the more time a teacher misses in the classroom the less likely students are to achieve in subjects like math.

For the 2009-2010 school year, CCISD administrators will do a little extra number crunching finding out if the number of absenteeism at a school correlates in anyway to state test scores. The new program which is part of the existing substitute data base, will reportedly be able to tell how many people are absent, for what reason, by teacher and who the sub was that took the teachers place. It can also readily pull up whether the sub was certified or degreed.

Peak Days For Substitutes

Date**** Number of Substitutes**** Day of Week

08/27/07 59 Monday-First day of school
09/07/07 192-FRIDAY
09/24/07 310 Monday
09/28/07 267- Friday
10/08/07 242-Monday
10/19/07 281-FRIDAY
11/2/07 296 FRIDAY
11/16/07 272-FRIDAY
12/07/2007 294 FRIDAY
12/142007 289 FRIDAY
1/04/2008 209 FRIDAY
1/11/2008 291 Friday
1/14/2008 224 MONDAY
2/1/08 273-FRIDAY
2/15/08 311 FRIDAY
3/7/08 286- FRIDAY