As proud members of NYSUT, the Ithaca Substitutes’ Association stands for equity, advocacy, and community. Explore our affiliate site connected with benefits, updates, and union news. Member Benefits | Ithaca Substitutes’ Association

🎓 Member Benefits for Ithaca Substitutes’ Association

Whether you’re in the classroom every day or filling in on short notice, your membership opens doors to tools, discounts, and professional growth opportunities.

💼 NYSUT Member Benefits
From legal support to wellness perks, NYSUT offers members a robust suite of insurance, financial, and discount programs designed with educators in mind.

📚 Education & Learning Trust (ELT)
Advance your teaching skills with affordable, CTLE-approved courses, degree pathways, and workshops tailored to substitute educators.

🌍 AFT PLUS National Benefits
Your membership stretches beyond New York—enjoy exclusive travel deals, shopping discounts, and wellness programs through Union Privilege.

(updated 1/9/2025)

The ISA is in negotiations with the board of education for our new contract and we are working under the expired 2024 contract until an agreement is made.

2024-2026 New Contract Coming Soon

We are also working to update this ISA website.

–A Look Back

2018-2021 BLOG STYLE INFO

There is some useful information buried in here and some outdated and no longer relevant to our current situations. However, this shows us where we have been and how we got to where we are today.

5/17/2021 ISA General Assembly Notes

   

–Yearly audit report – Sheryl Swink, ISA Treasurer

John Oakley, Audit Committee/Sheryl Swink: Audit thoroughly completed and sent to AFT as per regulations.  Waterproof packaging needed for records. Audit can be found at ithacasubstitutes.org

–GoFundMe for Peter – Terrek Taylor, Member-at-Large

Peter is still in need of support. GoFundMe link and Peter’s email were shared to hopefully pull in final donations before the campaign ends. Separate email will follow.

–Since September 2020  – Jane Atkin, ISA President

General overview of the year’s hardship, what we’ve had to deal with, and what we may see in the coming year. Jane gave a rundown of what a general day on the job looks like for those that haven’t been able to substitute this year.

Emphasis on Ibram Kendi’s ‘How to Be an Antiracist’  and his book with Jason Reynold, ‘Stamped’, for students. Middle schoolers read the latter and had a Zoom with Reynolds.  Social-Emotional Learning has also been discussed often this year. Workshops by the district were given and suggested reading by the ISA is available.

–ICSD substituting in 2021-22 – what we know – Mike Yerky, ISA VP

The district is hoping for all in-person school this fall, but planning is not finished at this time. There will be no need for CCS’s in the fall. Building substitutes will be implemented with an application process and school principals/district doing the selections.

The original Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA – the ICSD and ISA agree to additional language to be included in our 6-year contract) for CCS’s and building subs is posted in Union Documents   ithacasubstitutes.org

The new MOA concerning CCS’s, 2021-22 building subs, and Professional Development deadlines for those subs who qualify WILL be posted on our webpage once it is signed by Dr. Brown and Ms. Atkin.

Discussion of building substitutes in relation to full time employment and benefits  is an ongoing discussion.

Last words for the good of the union, Q&A, clarifications, comments    

Retired teachers need to work one day this year or new fingerprinting is required by the SED.

For virtual teaching information, contact carnold@icsd.k12.ny.us. She can explain how easy it is to substitute online – at home or in school.

Sheryl will send an explanation of PD eligibility as well as number of days substitutes have earned.

We are working on finding more appropriate PD’s for subs.

Jane announced she will not run for ISA President in the fall election. 

We anxiously await meeting in person with refreshments!!!

Fellow ISA members: The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed our usual Fall and Spring member meetings and presentation of updates on the state of ISA finances, but we do have a 2019-2020 year-end Financial Statement and Internal Audit Committee report on the status of our financial recordkeeping from our Audit Committee now available for you here on our website!

Any questions? Email us at ithacasubassn@gmail.com with Attn: Treasurer at beginning of Subject line.

Many thanks to Internal Audit Committee members John Oakley, Suzanna Csaki, and Pamela Markham for gathering in person with proper precautions in mid-April, once everyone was fully vaccinated, to carefully review:

(1) internal controls on the handling of ISA funds and recordkeeping in 2019-2020,

(2) and compare bank statements, expense receipts and records, ICSD dues reports, and the checkbook register to be sure all was complete and correctly presented in the Financial Statement.  

Dear Substitute Teachers,

This is just a quick update:

HR changed our “beloved” Pink Sheets. The new Pink Sheet is not pink anymore, just black and white (but it says ‘PINK’ on it at the top) and for the most part is the familiar old Pink Sheet. You use it the same way as before for paid workshops (see the post further down).

However, it is now also being used for per diem substitute teachers who fill in for a remote teacher. Per diem substitute teachers who fill in for an in-person teacher continue to use the signature sheet at the main office.

HR also introduced a second Pink Sheet that’s called ‘CCS PINK’ and you guessed it, is now black and white and is to be used by the newly established Classroom Collaboration Substitute Teachers (CCS) in lieu of AESOP.

If you have questions about how to fill either of them out for per diem or CCS use, your main office staff can help.

Read the letter from our president to learn how and when to use the pink sheet, earn professional development days through days worked and what to do if your scheduled job was canceled because of snow.

Dear Substitutes,

The first snow is here and with this we’re getting into snow days season. Snow days are kind of a double-edged sword: you get a day off when you and everybody else most likely don’t want to go to work – yeah! On the other hand, your nicely lined-up subbing job gets canceled and you don’t get paid that day – boo!

However, there’s good news and that’s where the attached pink sheet comes into play.

For every snow day that you were scheduled to work and got canceled, the District will pay for a day of Professional Development. So, last year we had three snow days, thus if you were canceled on all three days, you earned three paid PD days.

There’s more good news: after 30 days of service in a 12-month period (does not have to be consecutive days), you earn another paid PD day; and a second paid PD day after 45 days of service.

So, when totaled up this makes 3 PD days from snow days plus 2 PD days from 30/45 days of service = 5 paid PD days. I usually take these days in the summer, when I have more time and there are more PD offerings available.

Now the Pink Sheet: please look at the attached example sheet. You’ll need the name and date of the workshop and whether it’s morning or afternoon or both. A workshop of 3.25 hours or more is considered a full day, 3 or fewer hours count as half days. For the school you can enter either ICSD (the District Catalog) or BOCES (the TST BOCES Catalog). These catalogs are accessible via the Frontline Education portal

http://tinyurl.com/yhqem6q6

through which you may register for workshops and through which you get the proof of attendance/Frontline My Learning Plan printout, the next item on the Pink Sheet.

A piece of bad news here: you need 30 service days to get access to the Frontline Education Portal. The good news: Sharon Warren sharon.warren@icsd.k12.ny.us can set you up quickly once you contact her.

The last item on the Pink Sheet is ‘Reason for Absence’. Here you enter the reasons for which you claim the workshop to be paid: snow days with the actual date plus the confirmation number of the canceled job. It’s a good idea to keep a record of this information – I simply copy and paste all my scheduled assignments from AESOP into a spreadsheet once a week. Also, the History Tab in AESOP is your friend;-)

Lastly: the other possible ‘Reasons for Absence’ are 30 days or 45 days of service. Keep track of your days of service every year – the District will as well to verify the validity of your claim.

That’s it – happy PD-ing!

Mike Darwin Yerky

ISA VP

At our annual meeting, we discussed the new contract, looked towards our new year, and elected union officers. Jane Atkin was re-elected to be our union president. Mike Yerky was elected to take over as Vice-President. Sheryl Swink was elected to be our new Treasurer. Linda Morilla was re-elected to be our Secretary. Members-at-Large chosen were Jackie Cassaniti, Paul Norman, and Linda Yannone.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Friday June 7 and July 5, 5-8 PM

112 West Jay Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Lots of parking, you can walk to Gallery Night to the Commons from here in 10 minutes!

Sandy Wold, educator, artist, yoga practitioner, and author/researcher/originator of the Cayuga Basin Bioregion map, shares ten years of watercolors, acrylics, oils, and collage artwork (including a mural and permaculture garden) created from 2009-2019.  Since the  map was envisioned by Sandy (and painted by another artist), she now paints her own birds!  Her passion and focus is on birds and their relationship to their bioregion, international bird conservation, meditation, and transcendence from the distractions of the world stage.  Originals will be set up for silent aucions and prints will be for sale.

http://www.sandy-wold.com/

On June 5th the Ithaca Substitutes Association celebrated its 10th anniversary.  We gathered at the Liquid State Brewery and celebrated our founding members, our new contract, and discussed all the progress we have made as a union as well as the work still ahead of us.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The ISA and the Advocacy Center/Enough Abuse Tompkins Project have teamed up to organize three workshops for substitute teachers and ESPs.

1st workshop:
Enough Abuse: Understanding & Responding to Sexual Behaviors in Children and Mandated Reporter Modules
Date, Time, Location: Apr. 6, 9am – 1:30pm, at Dewitt Middle School (D102)
Compensation: According to Applicable Contract
ISA contract – http://www.ithacacityschools.org/tfiles/folder247/Bargaining%20Agreement%20-%20ISA.pdf p. 5, G (30 and 45 days); p.6, B (snow day)

2nd workshop:
Enough Abuse: Social Conditions and It’s Not Just Jenna Modules
Date, Time, Location: Apr. 13, 9am – 1:30pm, at Dewitt Middle School (D102)
Compensation: According to Applicable Contract
ISA contract – http://www.ithacacityschools.org/tfiles/folder247/Bargaining%20Agreement%20-%20ISA.pdf p. 5, G (30 and 45 days); p.6, B (snow day)

3rd workshop:
Enough Abuse: Knowledge & Awareness of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Tompkins County
Date, Time, Location: May 11, 9am – 1:30pm, at Dewitt Middle School (D102)
Compensation: According to Applicable Contract
ISA contract – http://www.ithacacityschools.org/tfiles/folder247/Bargaining%20Agreement%20-%20ISA.pdf p. 5, G (30 and 45 days); p.6, B (snow day)

Please sign up through the Frontline PD portal (District Catalog):
https://login.frontlineeducation.com/login?signin=cc89ec5dd8bbe9ded0a6922886b5f14d&productId=pd&clientId=pd#/login

Login: first letter of your first name followed by your last name, no space in between.
Contact Sharon Warren sharon.warren@icsd.k12.ny.us for Frontline PD sign in help.