SAUGUS — The School Committee is likely to vote to increase pay for substitute nurses later this month to bring the school district in line with many of its neighbors at the recommendation of Nurse Leader Jaqi Bogdanski.
Currently, Saugus pays substitute nurses the same rate it pays substitute teachers — $125 per day. But, Bogdanski told members of the School Finance Subcommittee that the rate is substantially lower than the rate offered in surrounding communities, so much so that numerous people have turned down the opportunity to substitute in Saugus because the pay is so low. She said Lynn pays $250 per day, while Malden pays $240. Andover pays nurse substitutes a whopping $400 per day, Bogdanski said.
State law requires substitute nurses to be registered nurses.
Bogdanski told the subcommittee that the disparity in pay for substitute nurses and teachers also exists in other districts.
She said the situation is particularly dire because the district does not have the full complement of nurses it is budgeted for. Two nurses are budgeted to work at each school in the district — the Veterans Early Learning Center, the Belmonte STEAM Academy, Saugus Middle School, and Saugus High School. But, now, the Middle/High School complex has just three nurses in the building each day, leaving Bogdanski with few options if a nurse takes a leave of absence or calls in sick.
“We’re in an extreme nursing shortage right now,” she said. “Every day, we’re down one nurse.”
“On top of that, whenever anyone’s out, to get a substitute to fill a position, we can’t,” Bogdanski added.
At Bogdanski’s request, Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem agreed to post the open full-time nurse position more broadly in the hopes of drawing more applicants. Hashem said filling that position would go a way toward helping the district pay a higher rate for substitute nurses because they would not need to do so on as regular basis.
Bogdanski told the subcommittee that two of the district’s nurses are about to take leave through the Family Medical Leave Act, meaning they will be out intermittently. As a result, Saugus will be down to what she deemed the “bare minimum” of three nurses.
“My concern is we get down to an issue where we only have one nurse at each [building],” she said. “We’re at three. If one more person calls out sick, I honestly don’t know what we’ll do because there won’t be enough nurses to cover every single school.”
By increasing the pay, Bogdanski said she was hopeful she could build a sort of Rolodex of nurses to call when the district needs a substitute. She asked subcommittee members to raise the daily rate to $270 per day, which Subcommittee Chair Ryan Fisher and School Committee Chair Vincent Serino appeared to balk at initially. Still, the urgency of the situation was not lost on members, with Serino saying the committee needed to act this month.
Fisher suggested that Executive Director of Finance and Administration Pola Andrews “crunch the numbers” and deliver a report to the full School Committee on raising the rates based on what the district can afford in its budget. Andrews said the budgeted line item for substitute nurses could not support a pay rate of $240 per day.
Fisher, Hashem, and Serino agreed that the subcommittee should recommend raising the rates to the full School Committee, at which point, members can discuss the exact rate after hearing from Andrews.
The issue will likely come up for a vote during the committee’s Jan. 18 meeting, when it will also likely vote on Hashem’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal.
