ROCKLAND — Oct. 13, 2026 — The Rockland School Committee approved raising the daily substitute rate from $100 to $125, with $150 a day for retired teachers, after Superintendent Jane Hackett said low pay had cost the district at least three somewhat regular substitutes and last year’s reductions had eliminated the permanent substitutes once assigned to each building.
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The recommendation, which Hackett called a 25% increase in pay, also raises the substitute nurse rate to $225. The current nurse rate was not stated.
The superintendent tied the request to staffing cuts. After the reductions, far fewer parents in the district are available to substitute, she said, and the district has lost the paraprofessionals who did most of the covering, while the ones it has are being pulled from the jobs they were hired to do. Hackett gave the committee a pay comparison and said the district wants to be competitive enough to win back the substitutes it lost and attract others.
We need to increase our substitute pay rate in order to be an attractive workplace for daily subs. But we do not have an attendance problem.
— Jane Hackett, Superintendent of Schools 39:40
Hackett said the daily substitute line can absorb the increase within this year’s budget. Growth in overall substitute spending was driven mostly by long-term substitutes and maternity leaves, she said, and the long-term and daily lines have been tracked separately for the last three years.
Asked how many substitutes the district needs on a given day, Hackett said it varies by building, with upwards of six staff members out in a building at times. Asked whether bringing in a paraprofessional would be more cost-effective than looking for a substitute every day, Hackett said the district had run that comparison and concluded the rate increase was the better option. Staff attendance is excellent, she said, calling the coverage gap a function of the reductions rather than of staff absences.
Residents interested in substituting can contact any building principal or the human resources director in central office, Hackett said. The openings will also be promoted through school newsletters.
The committee also voted on a Protect Act policy. Superintendent Hackett described the Protect Act as a new state law that does not allow civil arrests on school grounds and said the committee is required to vote on a policy, though district practice will not change: the district has followed state education department guidance for three years, and the model policy matches procedures already in use. Under those procedures, whoever answers the door gets the building administrator, who contacts central office leadership, and the district gets its attorney on the phone to review whatever warrant is or is not presented before proceeding. Emily Davidson asked whether someone who commits a crime on school property could still be arrested; Hackett said yes, because the policy covers civil matters, not criminal ones. The law also applies to hospitals and other locations, she said.
This is for civil arrests and civil actions only. And they need to have either a judicial warrant or a judicial order to be able to proceed on school grounds.
— Jane Hackett, Superintendent of Schools 43:10
The policy will be posted on the district website and added to the policy manual, as the law requires, Hackett said.
