Teachers having to watch over other classes during their conference periods can now look forward to monetary compensation for this time due to a new regulation gone into effect this month.

“With declining substitute fill rates due to circumstances like the flu and competition with neighboring districts, teachers have been increasingly asked to cover classes when a sub is not available,”  Frisco ISD Assistant Communications Director Meghan Cone said. “The District will begin dividing the cost of the sub among the teachers who assist with ensuring coverage.”

$22.50 will be paid to teachers for each additional class they cover.

“Frisco ISD allocates funding for substitutes as part of the Human Resources budget,” Cone said. “This is paid out of the general maintenance and operations (M&O) fund. “In the past, when substitute jobs were not filled, that money was just not spent and budget savings were realized if less money was paid to substitutes than what the District anticipated and budgeted for.”

However, teachers will not simply be able to jump at the opportunity to earn extra cash every time the school is short on substitutes.

“When there aren’t enough subs to cover classes, I have what’s called an emergency list, and it has a list of all the teachers and their conference periods,” AP Secretary March Lankford said. “Then I email them and let them know what class I need them to cover and what time.”

Despite the compensation, giving up one’s conference period is not the first choice for some like chemistry teacher Lara Russey.

“It’s never ideal to give up a conference period even if you’re being paid to do so, because there’s just things you have to get done in a working day,” Russey said. “I think it would be better if we could get more subs and more consistently getting that sub coverage from outside of our school.”