District, Substitute Teaching Firm Part Ways

Source4Teachers, the firm that provides substitute teachers to the district, will not work with the Wayne School District next year.

In an e-mail obtained by Wayne Patch, Jeff Belz, the firm's in-house counsel, notified district Superintendent Ray Gonzalez of the firm's intention to not renew its contract with the district via an e-mail sent at 11:34 a.m. Tuesday.

"We are respectfully declining the opportunity to renew the Source4Teacher contract for the Wayne school district for the 2013-14 school year," Belz stated in the e-mail. "We thank you for allowing our company to serve the school district in the 2012-13 school year. We wish you continued success going forward."

Gonzalez issued a statement at 1:42 p.m. stating that it was the district which decided to terminate its relationship with Source4Teachers.

"As a school district, we feel now is an appropriate time to conclude our relationship with this vendor," Gonzalez said in the statement. "We've already begun exploring alternatives, and we'll provide additional information as soon as it becomes available."

Source4Teachers issued a statement at 1:55 p.m. stating that Source4Teachers would not seek to have the firm's contract with the district renewed.

The announcement comes after parents came forward in recent weeks with an allegation that a substitute teacher from the independent staffing firm reportedly hit two Pines Lake Elementary School students on their heads March 8.

Source4Teachers, an independent agency that provides substitute teachers to school districts, has been under contract with the district since September 2012. The move saved the district $250,000.

Parents of the students in the alleged March 8 incident, teachers and residents criticized district administrators and the Board of Education at a meeting last week for their perceived lack of response and failure to communicate with them regarding the allegations.

Karen Veale, the mother of one of the students who spoke out at the meeting, could not be reached for comment.

Kevin Bush, president of Source4Teachers, said in a statement that the allegations that a teacher hit two students are “without merit.

“We take any matter relating to a child’s safety seriously,” Bush said. “Source4Teachers stands by our hiring practices, our training and formal investigation process and the integrity of the people we hire.”

Parents also complained that a Pines Lake substitute could not speak English, couldn’t understand lesson plans, and left children unsupervised in their classroom while she asked staff members for help.

A special community group was formed last week after the allegations were made public. The group will examine the use of substitute teachers in the district. It is comprised of parents, teachers and administrators.

It is unclear what role, if any, the group played in the decision not to renew the contract.

"At this time, the committee is in the initial stages of being formed," Gonzalez said.

— Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Daniel Hubbard at Daniel.Hubbard@patch.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.