ROCHELLE — The Rochelle School District 231 Board of Education approved the contracts of three HUB site coordinators for district schools during its monthly board meeting at Rochelle Middle School on Tuesday. 

Motions including more assistant coaches for RMS sports and increased substitute teacher pay were also passed at the meeting.

The board also held its annual budget workshop prior to the meeting, and a public hearing on the FY19 budget will be held at the RMS Media Center on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 6:40 p.m.

Yensy Garcia will remain the HUB site coordinator at Central School, while Breynn Baiocco will continue working as HUB site coordinator at May School and Lincoln School. Seth Gittleson will step in as the new HUB site coordinator at RMS.

The board approved an memorandum of understanding with the Rochelle Elementary Education Association for assistant coaches at RMS. The RMS volleyball, boys basketball, girls basketball and wrestling teams currently don’t have assistant coaches. Assistants will be paid at 3 percent of the base salary, with the cost for the four open positions estimated at just under $4,000 total, according the Superintendent Jason Harper.

Pay increase

The board also approved an increase in substitute teacher pay from $80 to $85 per day. The pay raise, Harper said, has been a result of an increased difficulty to find substitute teachers during the school year.

“From my conversations with other Ogle County district superintendents, they’ve felt that the combination of a pay raise and having more of an open-house mentality where people can have a better idea of what comes with the job seems to have districts more likely to meet their needs,” Harper said.