January 22, 2000
Web posted at: 8:31 p.m. EST (0131 GMT)

In this story: Spelling the flu-stricken Teachers union expresses concerns RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Schools in need of substitute teachers have a new option: They can call Kelly Services to fill their temporary classroom staffing vacancies.

Kelly, the No. 2 staffing agency in the U.S., began offering substitute teacher staffing nationwide last November. School districts in 10 states have signed on.

Schools have had a hard time finding qualified full-time teachers, and the situation has been worse in the case of substitutes.

MESSAGE BOARD Changes in education    VIDEO Reporter Kathleen Koch reports that school districts all over the nation will soon be able to find substitute teachers through Kelly Services. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Nationwide, demand for substitutes has grown as efforts to improve public education have taken more teachers out of the classroom to put them into training. And the pool of substitutes has dwindled because of the abundance of full-time job opportunities in other professions.

Spelling the flu-stricken

At Gulfport Central Middle School in Mississippi, the flu has hit hard, and 13 teachers are absent. In the past, finding substitutes was so hard that even principals and office staff had to fill in.

But in 1997 the district turned to temps -- once called Kelly Girls -- who have been teaching in their classrooms ever since.

Carlos Hicks, the school's superintendent, said, "It has helped our people do the jobs we pay them to do, while it's getting kids taught reasonably well by a substitute teacher when the regular is out."

Carl Camden, of Kelly Services, added, "It's very much a relief for the school administration. We've had many principals and district administrators talk about being able to spend more time on education."

Terry Million, an education major, was apprehensive about signing up with Kelly. Now she substitutes three days a week while attending college to finish her degree.

"We get paid more now," she said. "I work a lot more, and there's a lot broader variety of schools. I go anywhere from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade."

Teachers union expresses concerns

Others, however, worry that the five-hour training workshops and lesson plans provided by Kelly are not enough to turn temps into teachers.

"It's important to remember that we can't just put a warm body in front of a classroom," said Nancy Van Meter, of the American Federation of Teachers. "We need qualified substitute teachers in order to make sure that teaching and learning is going on in classrooms."

Correspondent Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.

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