Ypsilanti Schools accept transportation consolidation
Jun. 8, 2010 · 3:07 p.m.
"Shame on you" echoed through the audience Monday night after the Ypsilanti Public Schools Board of Education approved a plan to join a countywide consolidated...read more
Willow Run appoints new board member
Jun. 5, 2010 · 8:16 a.m.
The Willow Run School Board appointed a new, yet familiar trustee to the board of education during their regular meeting Thursday night.
Kristine Thomas, a Willow...read more
Willow Run approves county-wide transportation plan
May. 27, 2010 · 2:09 p.m.
The Willow Run School District signed on to a countywide consolidated transportation plan at their regular board meeting last week.
The plan aims to save transportation...read more
Lincoln offers summer courses to area high-schoolers
May. 26, 2010 · 7:49 p.m.
Students from Lincoln and other nearby districts are being invited to participate in Lincoln High School's Summer Academy this year, registration for which opened...read more
Willow Run terminates student services administrator
May. 26, 2010 · 12:26 a.m.
The Willow Run Board of Education unanimously voted to terminate its contract with former Student Services Administrator Laconda Hicks Tuesday night during a special...read more
Photo by James Cavanaugh
Human Resources Director John Fulton presents information to the Ypsilanti Public Schools Board of Education on the savings through automated substitution Monday night.
YPS keeps costs low with substitution program
Mar. 10, 2009 · 3:43 a.m.
With the recent economic downturn, Ypsilanti Public Schools is finding new ways to save money. One of those ways is automation.
John Fulton, executive director of human resources at YPS, presented a report on the automated substitute teacher system, AESOP, at Monday night’s school board meeting.
AESOP, owned by Frontline Placement Technologies, serves more than 1,700 school districts worldwide. It specializes in providing substitute teachers for K-12 districts.
YPS began partnering with AESOP in 2007. Since then, the district has saved more than $200,000. For the 2006-2007 academic year, the district spent $506,212 on substitute teachers. Last year the district spent $305,450 and expects to spend slightly less this year.
“Part of the savings is that [the substitutes] are contract employees,” Fulton said, adding that before contracting with AESOP, the school district had to pay assorted payroll taxes.
The new system is, according to Fulton, much more streamlined than the old system of having someone call substitutes the morning a teacher is absent. With AESOP, a teacher can input a planned absence into the system up to two months in advance. A substitute can then peruse the available jobs online, for a given date.
“Now you can go on the computer at night and look for any available job for the next two months,” Fulton said.
AESOP allows teachers to request particular substitutes. It also grants preference to highly-qualified substitutes, who have degrees in a particular subject area.
“If you’re going to have somebody in for six weeks for an English teacher, you want to have someone with a degree in English,” Fulton said.
The system is not only more streamlined, but also much more cost effective. In 2006-2007, YPS paid $61,411 on manually calling substitutes. AESOP charges $5,450 for its services.
“As a whole, we’re very happy with the system,” Fulton said. “It’s very cost efficient.”
In addition to Ypsilanti, every other school district in Washtenaw County also uses AESOP. Nearly 1300 substitutes in the area are registered with the service.
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