MASON CITY – The Mason City Community School District is looking to boost substitute pay for the 2026-27 school year, including a proposed schedule that would pay substitute teachers up to $205 per day for long-term work.
The Mason City Board of Education is expected to consider the substitute compensation plan during its regular meeting on Monday, May 18, 2026.
Under the draft plan, substitute teachers would be paid $160 per day for regular substitute teaching. That rate would increase to $190 per day after five consecutive days worked in the same assignment.
The district would also create a higher long-term substitute rate of $205 per day for substitutes working the same long-term assignment, or two or more long-term consecutive assignments, over a full semester. The district defines long-term work in the proposal as assignments lasting six or more weeks.
The proposal comes as Iowa districts continue competing for substitute teachers, a job that is often essential to keeping classrooms covered when regular teachers are sick, on leave, attending professional development or away for other reasons.
In Iowa, substitute teachers generally must hold a valid teaching license, substitute license or substitute authorization. The Iowa Department of Education says a substitute authorization requires an associate degree or at least 60 semester hours of college credit, completion of an approved substitute authorization course and mandatory child abuse reporter training.
The proposed Mason City regular rate of $160 per day works out to about $20 per hour for an eight-hour day. The $190 consecutive-day rate works out to about $23.75 per hour, while the $205 long-term rate works out to about $25.63 per hour.
That would put Mason City’s higher long-term substitute rate slightly above some recent statewide pay estimates. Indeed listed the average substitute teacher salary in Iowa at $24.88 per hour, based on job postings and salary data updated May 7, 2026.
Other Iowa substitute rates vary by district and type of assignment. A Grant Wood Area Education Agency official told KCRG in late 2025 that substitute teachers commonly earn about $18 to $20 per hour. Recent Iowa job listings have also shown daily substitute rates in the same general range, including $165 per day for a substitute teacher opening in Osceola and $172 per day for a long-term substitute position in Dubuque (according to ZipRecruiter).
The Mason City plan also includes proposed raises for several other substitute positions.
Substitute nurses would increase from $28.26 per hour in 2025-26 to $28.92 per hour in 2026-27.
Substitute paraprofessionals would increase from $16.41 per hour to $16.90 per hour.
Substitute custodians and grounds workers would increase from $22.20 per hour to $22.87 per hour.
Substitute food service workers would increase from $15.02 per hour to $15.47 per hour.
Substitute secretaries would increase from $19.14 per hour to $19.71 per hour.
Substitute bus aides would increase from $14.68 per hour to $15.12 per hour.
For non-teacher substitute positions, the draft document says compensation is based on the starting wage in the applicable collective bargaining agreement or the district’s Unified Pay Plan.
The substitute pay proposal is listed as a nonaction item on the May 18 school board agenda, meaning the board is scheduled to review and discuss it rather than give it final approval at that point.
The Mason City Board of Education meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 18, 2026, in the Administrative Center Board Room.
Good for them
Hopefully AI takes over education soon. The local school systems are rife with communists and crazy leftist loonatics, so I am told, and the proof is in the staggering amount of taxes they collect and (over)spend.