The Plymouth School Board has decided to incentivize some of its teachers to obtain greater levels of education.
Two years ago, the Indiana General Assembly devised rules allowing salary increases for teachers teaching AP and Dual Credit courses. The catch is the teacher overseeing the dual credit courses must possess a Master’s Degree and undergo 18 hours of graduate coursework in that subject by 2020 to receive the stipend.
Plymouth Schools Superintendent Dan Tyree says this is a must.
“There will be 66 graduates wearing the IVY Tech cords when they graduate Friday night,” says Tyree. “And that means they’ve had at least 15 hours of IVY Tech Dual Credit credits.”
The increase was allowed to be discussed between the school corporation and their local Education Association members. Plymouth teachers were notified in January of this year and were satisfied with a rate of $2-thousand per year.
Plans call for providing that stipend rate for teachers currently teaching AP and Dual Credit courses until the changes take effect in 2020. Plymouth Education Association President Laura Kruyer hopes the school board considers the matter from all angles
“Look at it from people who have to go and get additional schooling versus AP teachers who don’t,” says Kruyer. “Look at it from ‘okay what if we do offer this to high school and we don’t give elementary, or intermediate, or junior high teachers an opportunity to increase their salaries as well with extra degrees.”
The school board largely considered the matter not to impede the proposal under consideration, Tuesday night. School Board member Larry Pinkerton considered what would happen if they didn’t approve the stipend.
“Well I certainly don’t like the concept of teacher A being rewarded and teacher B, C, D, E, F cannot be rewarded,” says Pinkerton. “But on the flipside, I don’t want to see those kids get shortchanged because we’re not meeting the standard.”
The school board approved the stipend unanimously.
