New EPISD policy adds central office employees to substitute pool

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- It has been nearly two months since the start of the school year for the El Paso Independent School District, and one new initiative entering the classroom has become a talking point this fall: the central office substitute program.

According to EPISD, the new initiative requires administrative employees in the district's central office who do not work on a campus to substitute classes four days a semester and eight days during the year in addition to their regular duties.

"First and foremost, it gets our administrators in the classroom," said Leah Hanany, EPISD Board of Trustees president. "Secondary to that is going to be that there are some cost savings associated."

Those cost savings in question are because EPISD substitutes earn $100-$125 a day, according to the district.

The 255 administrative employees in the substitute program, including members of EPISD's communications and HR departments, will be paid on their normal salary.

"A lot of the comments that we received was that it was about time," Norma De La Torre, the president of the El Paso Teachers Association, told ABC-7. "They need to be here simply because all of the decisions that are made about what teachers do in the classroom are done through people here that work here at Central Office."

While most teachers support the new program, De La Torre warned that regular substitutes at EPISD won't have as many work opportunities.

"For a lot of our substitutes, that's been the only job that they've ever had," said De La Torre. "Because they've not wanted to do anything else...That's been their only source of income."

Board President Hanany told ABC-7 that regular substitutes shouldn't expect fewer opportunities with administrators joining the substitute pool.

"The administrators make up roughly 5% of our sub pool," said Hanany. "Ninety-five percent of our sub pool on a daily basis is going to be filled by our substitutes."