Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-01
Question Will Be Taken Up by
Board of Education.
WILL FRAME LEGISLATION
President James F. Oyster Discusses
Controllers Decision.
MEETS WITH HIS APPROVAL
His Associates Will Go to Work at
garding Hiring of Teachers.

Immediate steps will be taken by the
board of education to frame legislation
which will Iegalize the rules under which
substitute teachers are placed in those
classrooms made vacant temporarily by
teachers absent from illness or any other
cause.
The decision of the controller of the
Treasury, sent to the Commissioners yes
terday, which holds that the District dis
bursting and accounting officers have no
right to pay a teacher unless she is &C.
tually in her place in the schoolroom
for the period covered by the monthly
pay rolls. has met with the approval of
the president of the board, Capt. James
F.. Oyster. In a talk with a Star re-
porter yesterday, he said that the board
would undoubtedly get right to work to
recommend a new wording for the ap-
preparation act 50 that the objections OF
the controller Of the Treasury might be
met.
board and other school officials have not
been exactly comfortable in their own
minds about the legality of certain por-
tions of rule forty-three of the baby s
handbook. WHICH rule was framed to
cover absences Of teachers, officials, me-
chanical employees and others. The rul-
ing of the controller which states that
absent teachers must be deprived OF a
days pay for every day absent is some
thing which the board has seen coming
for some time past.
Necessity for Substitutes.
The schools cannot be run without sub
stitute teachers, as among 1.S00 teachers
there is almost constant absence from
illness or accident OF some kind. Substi-
tutes are picked from former teachers
and from the list of normal school grad
yates who have qualified as being COM
petent to teach. but who have not re-
ceived regular appointments. The board
drew I'D a long rule which covered all
kinds and classes of teachers Mt various
grada tons of .alaries, the effect of which
is that a substitute divides the regular
teachers pay for the first thirty days
and gets 1t all during the next thirty
days. After that temporary appoint
ment'' is made. and the absent regular
teacher drops from the roll until she re-
turns to her work. 1t is the division of
paw during the first thirty days which the
controller has declared without warrant
of law.
Absent Teachers Will Not Be Paid.
What will ,happen now until further
legislation is passed is. that substitutes
will be employed. but the absent teacher
will get no pay Just what rate of pay
the substitutes will have credited to them
is probably IL matter to be decided all
over again by the board of education.
Teachers pay depends on variety OF
circumstances, length of service, class OIL
service and kind of teaching.
Capt Oyster said yesterday AFTERNOON
that the case Of the two teachers who
10 a a
even while they were absent and sub
stitute teachers were in their places was
i'm his opinion entirely wrong and might
have been settled without going to the
controller. 1t so happened that the
board made the order during its upset
period pending Mr.. CoX's leaving the
board. after the announcement that he
intended to leave.
President Oysters View.
Il do not think, he said, that any
teacher should draw pay Indefinitely.
do think, of course, that the hiring Of
substitutes should be legalized and made
hard and fast. But no teacher should be
on the rolls Indefinitely. while not per-
forming service. We should be allowed
to hire a substitute at the minimum
salary of the class In which she substi-
tutes. / understand that in the case of
Miss Katherine Reed the difficulty arose
because she is in class a, and as that
is a special class with only few teach
ers in IT. and created by law for the
benefit of few very high-grade teach
ers. the supposition was that she would
draw pay regardless of the absences and
so forth. But l think she should be in
the class with all other teachers re-
garding pay when absent. We should
be entitled to hire substitutes at the
lowest salary of the class in which they
are placed. and the balance of the regu-
lar teachers pay should be kept in the
Treasury"