By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Alabaster Board of Education could vote during an upcoming meeting to contract with the same substitute teacher management company being used by the Shelby County Board of Education, Alabaster BOE members said during an April 15 work session.

During the work session, the Alabaster School Board heard a presentation from Kelly Educational Staffing representatives Steven Raley and Chris Zuber.

The Shelby County Board of Education recently approved a contract for Kelly Educational Staffing to provide substitute teacher services for its schools. Through the Kelly system, teachers are able to enter sick or vacation days on an electronic database. The database alerts a list of approved substitute teachers, who are then able to sign up to cover in a teacher’s absence.

“We manage the entire substitute system for school systems,” Raley said, noting the company currently works with about 17 school districts in Alabama. “We have a 98.9 percent fill rate.”

Raley said Kelly Staffing took over the Shelby County School System’s substitute system on March 25. When Kelly takes over a school system’s substitute system, the registered substitute teachers become Kelly Staffing employees, Raley said.

Kelly Staffing seeks input from the school system, school administrative staff members and bookkeepers when hiring its pool of substitute teachers, Raley said.

Raley said his company runs background checks, fingerprints, sex offender registry searches and seven-year local, county and federal criminal history checks on all members of the substitute teacher pool.

If a substitute goes inactive for 150 days, another background check is run on them before they are allowed to sub again, Raley said.

“We have very high standards. We want you to be satisfied with what we are delivering,” Zuber said. “We are very alert to potential issues.”

If the Alabaster School Board enters into a contract with Kelly Staffing for the 2013-2014 school year, Kelly Staffing will charge Alabaster the same amount it charges the Shelby County School System, Raley said.

“There is going to be total continuity if you guys decide to go with Kelly,” Raley said.