Ep #358: Save Time and Money on Substitute Teacher Recruitment with Nicola Soares

Hello empowered principals. Welcome to episode 358. 

Welcome to The Empowered Principal® Podcast, a not so typical educational resource that will teach you how to gain control of your career and get emotionally fit to lead your school and your life with joy by refining your most powerful tool, your mind. Here’s your host certified life coach Angela Kelly Robeck. 

Hello, Empowered Principals, welcome to today’s podcast. I have a very special guest. Her name is Nicola Soares. She works with a company called Kelly Education Services, and I love that because that is my last name. And we’re both in the field of education, but I actually met Nicola through an e-mail. I hadn’t met her in person before, but I had the privilege of meeting her through an e-mail thread and I loved their services.

I loved their approach and I want you to learn more about them and what they do so that if you are in any assistance and needing assistance, especially in the topic that we’re about to talk about today, which I think will be very appealing to many school leaders across the nation and that is of securing substitutes and doing it in a way that is reducing stress for not just teachers but for you, the school leaders, district leaders. We know that we have a problem. We have been trying to solve it on our own and Kelly Services is providing an approach that is just making it easier for everybody involved, including the subs. Imagine that. It’s a triple win.

So, Nicola, welcome to the pod. I’ll let you introduce yourself and tell a little bit more about your company and your services and what you do to support school leaders.

Nicola: Thank you, Angela, for having me on today. It’s such an honor and the work that you do, especially some of the topics that you cover are near and dear to my heart. So I am Nicola Soares. I’m the president of Kelly Education. I’ve been with Kelly Services, our parent company, for about 12 years. I did start my career as a public school social studies teacher. Wouldn’t that be fun to teach government in US history today? We have lots to talk about. And it really has been a labor of love as myself and our organization, as we’ve built out our services to be completely supportive of our school districts in the way of talent services. The majority of what we do is actually placing substitute teachers throughout the US and actually in about 40 states.

In addition to that, pediatric therapy services, so physical speech, occupational therapy, executive search services for university executive level positions, and also public K-12 school superintendents as well. So we know a little bit about everything that education is facing today. And just to kind of give you a little bit of our scale in 40 states, especially with substitute teachers, K-12, we placed about five and a half million assignments across the U.S. last year.

So we know the teacher shortage is alive and well, and certainly it started well before the pandemic. And I would characterize the situation here in the U.S. as a national crisis. So when we don’t have teachers in the classroom, to me, that’s the cornerstone of everything in terms of success for society and as we move forward as a broader, larger community. So that’s me in a nutshell of what we do with our services as we deploy them every single day.

Angela: This is a dream come true. When I was a principal, so that was from 2010 to 2016 before I promoted up to the district level, there was a shortage then. Post-pandemic, I’m sure, has been significantly impacted, but even prior, I feel like substitute teachers were very hard to come by. And back in the day, I would be lying in bed waiting for that 5:30 a.m. phone call to give me the list of who I had subs for and who wasn’t covered and basically then the baton passed to me and I had to figure how to cover that class, which meant either I was subbing, or I had to pull the instructional coach or a specialist, or the kids got split if there were no other, you know, certified humans to be able to do that job.

And as you just said, really, it is the cornerstone. And what happens is that it’s the kids that are impacted the most. And we feel the stress, teachers feel the stress, the subs are feeling the stress. Of course, the kids are feeling the stress and your services coming in and just providing some solutions and a bridge between the schools and the people who want to help support schools in a substitute position.

That feels like a miracle. So I love to hear that this is out there and available. And it’s been for quite, you said it’s been going on for a long time. You’ve been with the company with 12 years.  And so tell us more.  About how it works like, I’m a principal or I’m a district leader and I’m like, wow, this is the first time I’ve ever hearing of Kelly education. What tell me the process.

Nicola: Yeah, so great question. So I think there are two value propositions here for the clients that we serve. Our end users, which are teachers, and then obviously benefiting the student. But the other value proposition is really about the talent that we place. So let me start with clients. 

So our biggest stakeholder is the building principal and you’re right. I mean, the way you characterize it starts at 4: 35 o’clock, you know, you’re getting those calls or report school secretaries having to handle the placements of that. A service like ours is an end to end program. So think of us.

Eliminating all of that administrative burden. So from the idea of sourcing and recruiting qualified candidates, and I would tell you over those 40 states, every state has a different set of credentialing criteria. So you need to make sure that you have at least the minimum  specification of what that requirement of the job description of the substitute teacher is going to be.

So there’s a whole process, you’re sourcing, you’re recruiting, engaging with candidates, and then you’re onboarding them into. Our employment because there are employees and so if you can imagine, especially for those where maybe the credentials are less where someone has never even been inside of a classroom.

I mean, imagine that walking into a middle school classroom and never  there’s a lot of training that happens pre-hire. And then post hire. So on average, most of our employees are getting at least a minimum of four hours of comprehensive training, everything from, you know, best practices, classroom management, tips and techniques.

And then of course, safety and security or what to do if a child has a certain situation, all of that good stuff. So in that process too, as part of our program, we’re also managing those employees on assignment, supporting them with payroll and questions too. Their next assignments, so a program like ours is very technology driven.

I always the analogy I give. It’s almost similar to uber, you know, where you’re matching the talent  assignment opportunities, but then you’ve got this entire workforce. My workforce, it’s also supporting to make sure that placements are met. Last minute, especially with last minute illnesses at 5 o’clock in the morning to make sure that we’re able to do our job in real time.

So the repeat the rinse and repeat of it is also to make sure that those qualified talent folks, you know, that are taking assignments on a very regular basis within 180 days. So, and as part of the benefit of.  A client program, they also get really great reporting, very detailed reporting around teacher absenteeism.

And I would tell you, there’s a huge correlation. Hopefully, we can talk a little bit about that  in terms of teacher absenteeism in terms of overall, you know, I would say engagement of a public school district in terms of employee sentiment and how they feel about working there. 

Angela: So,  yeah, yes, I actually really want to dive into that. Because the angle that I would like to bring into education is that at the bottom line, Nicola, I feel like it’s how people feel. Absolutely. It’s like emotion drives decisions and actions. And what I hear you saying is that there is a direct correlation and I’m sure your company has stats on this for the people who need that level of information and data, but.

There’s a correlation between absenteeism and how people feel about themselves, about their contribution, about their ability to teach, about how their district feels about them, their site leader, how they feel treated by parents and students and colleagues and their boss. Like so much of that. And I also think about how the substitutes feel coming to a school where the staff doesn’t feel good versus like coming and wanting to sub in a school where people feel good about themselves and teaching and their colleagues and their bosses and their, you know, like the contribution in their identity as a teacher.

So. I would love for you to share your perspective on like how subs feel and their feedback to you. And one of the myths I’m trying to debunk is that there are people out there who want to be subs. 

Nicola: 100%. Yes. 

Angela: There is an abundance of people who care and want to be good subs and they want to come and support your school. And they actually, they don’t want full time jobs. They’re choosing subs for the flexibility or for the. You know, the dynamicness of, you know, being a sub and having something different every day and not having all the responsibilities as a full time teacher. So there are people available for subs. And  I’m not saying you don’t have to go through a sub shortage, but I do think that we can. Offer a perspective or a mindset shift that might feel better about subs in general, and then how we make subs feel based on how our culture is at our site.

Nicola:  So in Kelly, we know being a global workforce solutions organization, we do a lot of research, especially around talent in terms of how they want to work and the ways that they want to work.

And so we call folks, and I think substitute teachers are the ultimate sort of gig workers, but not to give that kind of like, sort of that cultural kind of term vernacular. But when you think about it, Kelly calls ’em work life designers and what we have discovered, especially coming outta the pandemic where people were very burnt out with jobs and going in, you know, really having a sort of a step back of their lives of how do they want work to fit into their lives.

Substitute teaching, I think, is a great opportunity where people can design their income. The way that they want that to sort of flow. So you might have somebody as an example where you’ve got somebody younger, maybe in their late twenties, who have just launched their real estate career, but as they’re launching their real estate career, they also need that income coming in.

What better way to work two, three days a week in their child’s elementary school. A second example that we discovered is that many healthcare professionals. Who were burnt out from the pandemic for all the pandemic reasons that we know, might have been in the hospital system, like an RN, as an example, or a physician’s assistant. 

They have a four year degree that’s usually a STEM degree. Those credentials transfer very nicely into teaching physical science or biology, or maybe even special education. And the fact that they were so burnt out, they’re still very purpose driven professionals. What better way to explore and discover another career.

Through substitute teaching, which is, I believe that many of our folks that do want to do it, they do nurture children, they do care about being a part of that whole developmental process. So these are some of the examples. What is remarkable to me when I first started my position, we had tons of substitute teachers and we didn’t have a teacher vacancy crisis that was sort of going on.

Further as we’ve gone in the last decade or so, we know the challenges of education in terms of expectations from parents, lower salaries compared to other industry professionals coming out. Let’s talk about the economic college debt that many of our students have incurred now to become a teacher. One out of, I believe, seven, I think, on average, it’s 57, 000 of college debt.

One out of seven owes about  105, 000. Probably in those states where they’re required to have an undergrad and a master’s degree. That is just Incredibly crippling. And so when we think about students in their undergraduate degrees, who are now not really pursuing an education degree because really can’t afford it, maybe in life, these are some of the dynamics that we do see.

And then the pandemic just only exacerbated a lot of the challenges that our schools have found. So, coupled with that, all of the geopolitical pressure that we see, low salaries, really tough circumstances. Active shooter threats increasing. It’s just this incredible, horrific challenge that educators are facing today.

So our public school districts, especially instructional leadership, building principals, superintendents have to really think about and re-event it. I think a different employee value proposition, and then also with the subject of substitute teachers, understanding, recognizing that they’re part of the talent supply chain.

Now, and in our data, I would share Angela that probably with long term assignments. Or vacancies that public school districts cannot fill. They’re using long term substitute teachers with who are very qualified credentials to meet that need 20% or so on average.

Angela: So I can believe that totally.

Nicola: Yeah, so it’s been a fascinating sort of study and just watching of how we support and improve, I think, the situation, but I do think that, you know, it has come very much to the public view that we do have an issue with our national teacher shortage crisis, as I call it.

Angela: Yes. And what that makes me think of is, it’s redefining the role of a substitute teacher as an essential component of your employees. Like it is a necessary required essential component. And I’m just going to say it cause I just say it like it is on this podcast, but I feel like perhaps sometimes in the past perspective have been like. Oh, that’s a sub they don’t mean to dismiss, but on the priority list of all of the demands, it tends to be lower.

It’s like, if somebody else can just like give them their folder and give them their king, get them to their room. Like it’s okay. I’ve checked my box that classrooms covered versus remembering that one. To me, we are in the business of human development. This is a human experience we’re having, not just for students.

It is an experience that we’re having as the adults on campus and that the experience of your substitute teacher matters just as much as the onboarding experience of a new hired teacher matters. And we want to keep in mind that. Subs who feel welcomed and feel good and feel a integrated, appreciated part of the staff are going to be much more likely to come back because it feels good to be there.

Nicola: Yeah, great insight again. So one of the things that we realized very quickly because of the shortage, how could we make our program a little bit more beneficial? So a couple different things. Helping to find great talent so that people could hire great teachers second, but also the point that you’re making substitute teachers to be a part of a more inclusive community, knowing that they’re becoming more of an essential worker, as I called it coming out of the pandemic has been interesting.

So we changed some things in our program and part of the value proposition that we do give our clients. If you employ substitute teachers, employ them from the opportunity that you get to experience different qualified talent to come into the classroom. And as part of their opportunity, they get to hire the folks right out of our program. 

We found that if a substitute teacher was hired into a full time position in the district, and they had been at the school, they had been at the district for a year or two, what have you, it was less attrition. The fact that they would have the opportunity to be extremely successful because they had built relationships, they knew the students and parents and had those relationships. So we were really excited to be a part of that, because I do think there are different ways and means of sourcing and recruiting for great talent. But in some ways, it’s not like student teaching, but it does give them sort of an internship experience. Maybe it’s a better way to say it. And then get hired as to be a part of that full time permanent community.

Angela: Yes, I hope people heard that because one of the biggest challenges or stress points that I hear next to behavior management, I would say that’s tops the list is teacher shortage and trying to cover for subs and the principal being so, and I know this intimately personally, like being so stressed because, you know, Almost every day there’s going to be a demand and ask a request for you to be in a classroom teaching, which I absolutely loved, but it almost, you felt like you weren’t getting to your own job.

You didn’t feel like you were leading because you were busy teaching, even though you were modeling what it’s like to be a team player. But at the end of the day, a principal has a set of tasks to complete and do. If you’re teaching, you’re not doing that. Right. So. This is a service that leverages so much more than just checking the box of having a credential teacher in a classroom.

This makes the whole system work more smoothly. I think of it like there’s currencies that we leverage as school leaders, as school principals, you can leverage time where you take the time yourself to go and teach that class. And then you work late hours and you pull the lever of time or you can pull the lever of like Income finances, you know, funding, you can pull that lever and get a service like this, where they pay you or the district or however it works pays you.

And then what you’re doing is saying in exchange for this financial, you know, investment. We’re going to provide you peace of mind knowing you have certified trained teachers who are coming in who have had actual training to know how to step into a classroom to actually be a sub and own that role with confidence and pride and go into a school so that there’s peace of mind for students

The cop, you’re the members of that team that grade level or department. The parents feel good knowing this is a familiar face. Tell us more about that aspect of it from your company’s angle i’m just thinking like. I as a principal have a problem and you have a beautiful solution but I think people are afraid to pull the lever. They’re like I’m afraid to invest the money or I’m afraid.

That it’s going to actually take more time and I should just do it myself. There will be like some challenges met, like mind obstacles, thought obstacles, I call them in the way of like considering the service. 

Nicola: Yeah. So, you know, in partnership, the one thing that we do upfront is always to sort of do an analysis. And it’s always really interesting of what people think, especially. From a cost perspective, they don’t realize there’s a lot of hidden costs associated with the hiring of substitute teachers, or even recruiting full time teachers. Many of the HR departments in our public school districts are incredibly small.

Overwhelmed don’t really have the bandwidth in the scope of reach and services. And so you think about also, there’s a lot of reactionary costs that spent. So you think about people don’t consider associated with the hiring of people like advertising and recruitment and marketing and. I mean, all of that, right?

So, to be able to really assess what the true costs are of a program like ours can really, I think, move in very quickly in terms of what actually are all those true hidden costs. If we do our job well over time, we actually save a district. Money over time, and that’s just more efficient efficiencies around recruiting being able to place.

We see absenteeism sort of going down a little bit. I mean, when you think about absenteeism on the national average of teachers, it’s far more higher than the private sector. I think private sector last that I saw was about 6%. Of employees not coming to work every day, teachers right now can be anywhere in any day, 8, 10, maybe even 12% on a given day.

So when we think about the impact to student achievement over time, there’s a lot of other residual things that take place there as well. So like a program like ours to be truly effective, it really means that we really help a public school district manage their. Teacher absenteeism in terms of placing a substitute teachers district wide, not just maybe on a per building basis.

The other considerations to have as well, too, is that in terms of how they pay their substitute teachers for those that do, are servicing long term assignments that districts, what we say to consider. Thinking about paying their substitute teachers who are sitting in that biology class for 180 days, the equivalent of a teacher’s salary commensurate to their credentials.

To think about that, to tap into those full time budgets too, as opposed to eating up substitute teacher dollars, is also really important. Districts that, I think, coming out of the pandemic, realizing the shortages, have effectively really looked at, critically, their substitute teacher pay on a daily basis, to increase them so that they are Market competitive, if you will, to other districts or just in terms of the equivalent of a full time teacher have also reduced their absenteeism who have also been able to make sure that their classrooms are covered as well. So we do see the benefits of that exponentially when a district buys into a comprehensive program such as ours.

Angela: Have you ever had the experience of not being able to cover? So let’s say a district is working for you, Has that ever happened? Or do you just have such a large pool that you can guarantee coverage?

Nicola: Yeah. So usually, you know, we think about ratios of what it takes, you know, it really depends on the school district or the set of, you know, challenges. And, you know, this Angela’s being a building principal sometimes. Within a public school district, you could have  probably more challenging schools versus others.

It might depend on socioeconomic factors. It could depend on all sorts of things are fill rates or what we call fill rate, which is our daily placement rate. On average, we’re in the high 80s and a lot of our areas, they’re over 90%, which has been unprecedented prior to the pandemic was high 70s, low  80s and say that we tend to be incredibly successful because we have a very efficient practice compared to districts doing it on their own, probably in my tenure here, I might have seen one or two schools or even districts that, you know, Trying to get their fill rates up were really challenging.

I can think of one particular city school district that had, was very reliant on public transportation, but their public transportation was really old and very late a lot of the time. So when you think about zoning of public schools in this particular school district, too, on occasion or had like the Superbowl in their city.

So, you know,  but it just depends. I would say too, there’s always a correlation to the harder to serve schools tends to be where engagement’s really low of full time staff. The other benefits of our program is to be very consultative in terms of being a human capital organization of different things that we can do.

We do a lot of. Pulse surveys, here at Kelly too, especially on a quarterly basis, that gives us a great baseline in terms of what’s going on, employee sentiment, areas of concern, how can we improve what’s going great. We always invite our client colleagues to do the same, because I do think that if they really want to know, And they do it consistently on a scheduled basis. 

It can really help to inform the improvement there. And we survey our substitute teachers too, and especially how they feel about the assignments, the building that they walk into, we turn that over to the district, because I think that’s a great piece of feedback.

Angela: Yes. And the reason I asked that question really in full transparency is because I don’t want principals to hear this podcast and think perfect solution. I can throw money at the problem and it will just vanish and go away. And now they’re responsible and they’re going to take care of it. There is a difference between collaborating with this type of a service versus abdicating 100% of the responsibility and principals. I know what you’re thinking because I would think it too. You’re like, I hear what you’re saying. This is great, but is it going to be another thing to juggle, another thing to manage, another thing on my plate.

And my personal answer, and I’d be curious to hear yours is, I don’t think it’s another thing on your plate as much as it is an invitation to shift the way you think about your subs. Because it isn’t a do, like your approach might shift a little bit in the way that you engage with your subs or you engage with your culture and like building culture so that subs want to stay and want to come. But I think it really starts with not an action, with a mindset, with what’s possible and looking at it in terms of possibility and collaboration and the potential that’s available here.

And in terms of not just getting subs for like that crisis moment or that last minute thing, or for somebody who’s on a leave, but like building genuine relationships with the company, but also with the individuals who are subbing for you to create partnerships, whether that person only wants to remain a sub for the long term, or they are looking for a full-time position, and this is a bridge or a transition for them.

Nicola: And I love the name of your podcast, The Empowered Principal, because that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. From my perspective, what I want our principals, I want them to be successful. And it starts with a successful teacher in the classroom. I call our teachers the head learners of the classroom. And so when you have a successful head learner, especially somebody that you’re trying out as a substitute teacher who’s placed and you get to hire, I mean, that’s great. The success of a program is a true partnership and it has to be collaborative. And that’s why we do provide the insights to our building principals if they choose to be able to really effectively work, you know, how can we help solve your problems? 

So you’ve got a second grade classroom that historically, it’s really hard to fill or keep teachers in or whatever it is, to be able to really tackle and be very surgical too, and where we can help and assist. There are other things too, understanding the talent needs from a building principal’s perspective. I mean, it’s always interesting to me to hear, we really need teachers that I think about a lot of the districts we serve in Florida that can be bilingual. Can you find really great substitute teachers and hopefully that they can be hired into a full-time employment that have that skill set? It’s just little things like that, that if you can help, I mean, I always say to folks, consider us to be the extension of your HR organization or your HR department.

And so looking at the people insights to be able to give you all sorts of best practices, anything that we can do to make that education community of that building a great place to come in and work. And you know what, it’s not lost on me too that our building principals are also head learners. But do you know, and I know you probably do know this, my friend, building principals are the fastest to turn over. At 40% is the national average because it is a very challenging job when you think about all of the stakeholders that you have.

Angela: I call it the ultimate middle manager position, right? Because you are  navigating. The entire school district from the community to parents, to kids, to, you know, teachers, staff, the support staff, office staff, maintenance, like you’re dealing with all of it.

Then you’re dealing with up, you know, district level County fed state. So you really are like the epicenter of that school. And you’re having to coach up and out to your communities, to your school and upward into the district. So it is intense, right? That’s why 50% leave after three years and like 70% leave after five years. 

I always ask my school principals, what’s the one next thing, if you could wave a magic wand and solve it or have it like reduced by half, what would it be behaviors and subs there are external problems, right? So I kind of teach them in that internal work, but it’s also external. And it is actually like, you could write it down in a court of law that yes, these are issues that we’re dealing with, but there are services available to help you.

Meet in the middle, like this service can come in and help you with this. That doesn’t mean like it magically goes away, but if it reduces your stress by 50%, cause you know, you have subs 80% of the time, that’s incredible. That’s an incredible shift in where you as the school principal can focus because now it’s not, you’re only thinking when you go to bed at night and when you wake up in the morning about how you’re going to fill subs, you now have space and energy. To start fulfilling your instructional leadership goals and creating vision and really building up your team.

Nicola: 100% and completely agree. And usually what we find when a program gets implemented, the building principles are like, we lost, do not take it away. You know, like, it’s just its game changer.

Angela: I have a question I feel like people are dying for me to ask.

Nicola: Yeah

Angela:  I’m thinking this. If as a district, we’re trying so hard to recruit. And we’re getting nothing. I hear this all the time. There’s nobody out there. Nobody’s applying. There are no good candidates. Like it feels like the world is void of candidates and it’s not for a lack of trying these districts they’re putting on Facebook posts, Instagram, they’re going on LinkedIn, they’re going on, you know, like ed join, they’re doing all the things, but they’re not getting the traction. 

How is your service able to attract and retain such talent, especially like, and I don’t know the state you serve and not serve, but no matter where somebody is, there’s a district out there. Like, how is that possible? Because I want you to blow people’s minds by letting them know there are subs available, even if you’re in a little. Rural space or like you’re in the state of wherever and you think there’s no subs. Tell us about the magic behind your recruitment. 

Nicola: There are absolutely substitute teachers out there, candidates that want to try this, they want to do this, you know, and I mentioned earlier about value proposition for clients, but also for the talent that we serve.

Not only do I consider to, you know, public school districts to be our clients, but I also consider our employees are clients. What I mean by that is it is our responsibility to sell the brand of a public school district to be able to really provide an open insight, if you will, to all the great things that these, these districts do.

School districts are doing, and they’re doing a ton of great stuff. I don’t think that necessarily sometimes, you know, that’s really made transparent and really promoted. And so part of the, the program that we do have is promoting all of the great things that a particular public school district is doing, all the way right down to different neighborhood school buildings.

I like to think education takes it a little step higher when I think about we provide continuity of instruction, great work opportunities. That’s going to impact students’ lives. So, if we can give continuity of instruction, we’re a part of that community, if you will, as being a part of that, as I said, instructional talent supply chain to be a permanent fixture, if you will, to be able to.

Be hired full time into the district. What a wonderful win. The other thing, it’s not just limited to younger folks coming into the profession. We have so many people that had great careers that might want to do something a little different and those skills transfer and those real life sort of experiences and applications transfer really nicely.

So I really do think it is definitely on us to be able to promote effectively. A public school district’s mission and their purpose and all the great things that are happening there. 

Angela: I’m so thankful that you shared this because I feel like principals now feel pressure to be marketing and selling their school and trying to present it to the world, to the community out there that.

All of the great things it’s doing, and it’s yet another layer. It’s, I always felt like as a principal, like, you know, in a corporation there’s like a pyramid, right? There’s workers and then there’s managers, and then there’s directors and the, all the way up to like the CEOs and the c-suite, the school principal, it’s like a, instead of a triangle, it’s a, a long rectangle, , you’re just rolling from one end to the other, right?

Your HR, your marketing and sales, your finance, your instructional leadership, your budget, you’re doing teacher observations, classroom management, behavior management, like PR, you’re doing it all. And that’s why you feel you’re going, you know, a mile wide and an inch deep because you actually are going a mile wide and an inch deep.

And that’s why services like mine exist for leadership. Development like your services really helps promote it solves multiple problems, you know, on based on what you’ve shared with us today. It’s more than just like getting a sub a person in a classroom. It’s about building a community where we have long term employees.

We have shorter term employees. We have daily employees. We have this breadth of people who are. Genuinely interested in human development, empowering students, empowering teachers, empowering principals. Like, I feel like that is what education is. We’re here to empower people to be whoever they want to be and subs want to be subs.

I think that’s something that was an aha for me. I interviewed somebody from the state of Washington, maybe a few months ago. She’s darling and they’re doing this great collab. I don’t know if you work with the state of Washington at all. 

Nicola: Yeah

Angela: Okay. And there’s a group near, I think it’s Olympia where she’s like, we want to be subs. We love the flexibility. We love like. Different kids, different classrooms and the flexibility, they can work one day a week, five days a week. 

And on the podcast, it was just opening the eyes of people were like, Oh,  there are people who want to do this and who value it and are proud of being a sub and love it.

And they want to serve your school. So I think if you could walk, I always want to give so much value on this podcast. And if you can walk away with just believing and trusting that there are plenty of people who want to support your school and that this can be a real win, it’s available to you. It really is.

Nicola: And I would say, Angela, the best day of my professional life each year is when we announce our substitute teacher of the year. And we get hundreds of nominations from school districts, they’re usually building principals mostly from teachers of their particular favorite substitute teacher and we give them a form and they give the reasons and all that. But there’s definitely folks out there that this is what they do for a living.

Angela: It is their profession and they love it. They adore it. And. It’s empowering for them to be in that role in this way. They feel like it’s the best contribution they can make. And like, that is just so inspiring to me. I love that.

And it’s so fun to hear you celebrating the subs in the same way we celebrate teachers. Like one of my philosophies as a life and leadership coach for school leaders is that everyone in your building, everyone in your district, every member of the organization, equal contribution, but different equal power, but different.

We walk shoulder to shoulder with our custodians, with our office staff, with our nurses, our counselors, our, you know, food service professionals, our paraprofessionals, we are all equally contributing.

Nicola: Yeah

Angela: It just looks different. There’s no hierarchy because you take one piece out of the puzzle, the puzzle’s incomplete. You take subs away, crisis. You take out custodians, crisis. You take out office staff, like everyone’s contributing of equal significance. 

Nicola: Absolutely. And they’re contributing to the success of our students.

Angela: That has a well-being for everybody on campus, right? The well-being. I just remember like, as a teacher, my colleagues would tell me, I’m sick. I’m just giving you a heads up, I’m so sorry. They would feel guilty for staying home with the flu because they knew I was going to have to take on a third of their class, and it was going to impact me. And people would come in sick. People would go in sick to write subplans last minute. It was insane. And we’re forgetting that we’re in the business of humans here, of people, and we have to come up with a better solution. And it sounds to me like what Kelly Services does is it provides a better solution.

Nicola: I think so. And I can tell you, I get up before the alarm clock every single day.

Angela: Because I don’t know what we do, so. Just to wrap up, is there any final words of wisdom, and if they want to reach you, they want to learn more, we’re definitely going to put the links in the show notes for you guys to get more information, but I just want to have you share it real quickly for the listeners out there who might be in their car and can’t take notes.

Nicola: Yeah, I would say the whole issue around substitute teachers or keeping classes covered does not need to be a burden. So a program like ours can work in partnership in tandem with our school buildings, our school districts. You know, we would love to talk to you. How can we help? Because I really do believe with all of the things that we are faced in what we’re challenged with, education does not have to be the way that it needs, what it might be today.

I think there were just tremendous opportunities to readdress, improve, and just really think about things from a different point of view. And it does take a broader community to help solve those challenges. And I really do think part of that responsibility is private sector helping more out with our public school communities.

Angela: Absolutely. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your patience as we were scheduling and try and figuring out a mutual time that would work. I’m so grateful for your flexibility, but this was a wonderful conversation. School leaders do take a look into this, especially if you’re top three stressors. If one of them is substitutes, this is a beautiful solution, a beautiful partnership, and an opportunity for you to leverage and look at subs in a completely different way for the betterment of not just students.

I know we always say it’s for the kids, but this is really about your staff and yourself. It’s okay to get support. It’s okay to reach out. It’s already curated for you. Like, it’s just such a triple win. I think it’s amazing. And I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to share this on the podcast.

So thank you, Nicola, for your time and for your efforts and for the way that you’re serving education and the world, really, like, you know, the world of all the little humans out there who deserve, you know, continuity and people who care and want to be in those classrooms. So thank you.

Nicola: Thank you, Angela. It’s a privilege. Thank you for the work that you do on your podcast, too. So like I said, I love the title, The Empowered Principal. It’s awesome. Thank you.

Angela: Thank you. Have a great week, everybody. We’ll talk to you next week. Take good care. Bye. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Empowered Principal® Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, please visit angelakellycoaching.com where you can sign up for weekly updates and learn more about the tools that will help you become an emotionally fit school leader.