The flexibility of substitute teaching appealed to Dolores de Vera after she moved to Tucson from Missouri over a decade ago.
The hours fit her schedule. The students and her coworkers were fun and she learned the city through her school assignments.
Fellow substitute teacher Jerry Schuster grew up in the Tucson Unified School District. When he moved home over two decades ago, he just needed a job, he said. Subbing worked for him, especially when he got to do it at one of his alma maters: Mansfeld Middle School or Tucson High School.
In 2016, after subs “essentially got a pay cut,” de Vera said, she and Schuster were more visible at TUSD Governing Board meetings. They recruited other subs and started to lobby for a substitute teacher seat at the union bargaining table.
A decade later, TUSD became the first school district in Arizona — and one of the few in the nation — to sign a collective bargaining agreement for substitute teachers after the Governing Board unanimously approved the 30-page agreement this week.
“It’s putting it mildly to say it means a lot. We have an agreement in place. We have rights and benefits and they are codified,” Schuster told Arizona Luminaria in between classes this week.
Schuster, a substitute teacher for more than 25 years, is one of nearly 900 subs within Southern Arizona’s largest school district. He goes by Mr. Schuster until students earn their diplomas.
About a mile away at Project More High School, de Vera took a breath during her lunch break.
“In the big picture, we now have a union,” she said. “If the board were to try to cut our pay the way it did before, people would know to go to the union,” said the fulltime sub in her 14th year. “Before, we didn’t have a union that was representing us, we had to find each other and talk each other into speaking up, which plenty of subs are too afraid to do that. Now, there’s a structure in place.”
Filling gaps with part-time and longer-term substitute teachers is routine for every school district. At TUSD — with about 35,000 students in 88 schools — it’s a daily challenge.
The daily pay for a TUSD substitute teacher is $150.80. The rate varies within each school district for long-term subs, those who teach more than 20 days and those who have certain certifications, like special education.
Long-term subs are vital throughout Arizona, which has a shortage of 4,000 teachers this school year. Nearly 30% of long-term subs currently fill those positions, according to Arizona Department of Education data.
The Tucson Education Association, the labor union which represents teachers and most other classified employees, worked with the district over the last 18 months or so to forge the agreement, which makes TUSD more competitive to lure subs.
“Dolores de Vera and the subs unionized with TEA have blazed a pathway for subs in Arizona to see what is possible to fight for and win,” TEA President Jim Byrne told Arizona Luminaria.
Less than 1% of substitute teachers nationwide are unionized, the National Education Association estimates. Unions representing substitute teachers can be found in Chicago, San Francisco and New York City and are typically created on a district-by-district basis. Subs in most districts have no union access or collective bargaining rights, especially in right-to-work states (like Arizona), according to a 2022 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
“Now, because there is a union, there are people watching to prevent stuff or to alert people,” de Vera said. “We have a seat at the table.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
