Creating Solutions for Community Unit School District 300

Prior to partnering with Edustaff, District 300 relied on SmartFindExpress to dispatch substitutes to classrooms where a teacher was going to be absent.

But there were often absences left unfilled in the large suburban district. Although the central office provided some oversight, it was mostly up to building secretaries to solve the problem when a classroom had no substitute teacher.

The district realized they needed someone with expertise in recruiting and staffing to take the burden off the building staff and let the top administrators get back to their core mission of educating students.

District 300 turned to Edustaff in the summer of 2022, and in the first year of the partnership, their fill rate rose from percentages in the low 70s to about 90%.  

District 300 Superintendent Dr. Susan Harkin said Edustaff has provided solutions to ongoing issues, and provided key metrics to help them make data-informed decisions. Using numbers pulled from SmartFind Express, Edustaff determined which locations the district struggled with most and which days were hardest to fill. That data helped them take a proactive approach to finding substitutes for those days and locations.

“There are more demands than ever on our buildings to support our student needs. Filling vacancies with substitutes is a very basic but important way to support our students. By utilizing a company that is dedicated to the business of hiring and utilizing substitutes to make sure we have a qualified person in front of our students every day, we can allow our building administrators to address the more pressing issues they are facing to better support and focus on our students and their success.” - Dr. Susan Harkin, Superintendent, District 300