Plymouth Community Schools held a meeting on Wednesday for the purpose of presenting a tentative agreement between the Plymouth Education Association and the Plymouth Community School Corporation for the Master Teacher Contract for the year.
The meeting was simply to present the contract to the board and allow input. No official action was taken by the board in the meeting. All the changes in the contract would be retroactive to the beginning of the school year since the money for operations from the state legislature is based on school enrollment on Oct. 1 of each school year.
Superintendent Mitch Mawhorter presented the board with some of the highlights of the contract.
First, the starting salary for a first-year teacher will be increased from $46,000 to $47,000 for this year. The salary schedule for veteran teachers was extended to include years 23, 24, and 25 and all teachers with a minimum of one year of service will receive a $2000 raise.
Mawhorter said that the contract brings the range of salaries for teachers to between $47,000 and $77,000.
He said that the increases would be added to current teacher salaries stating that in some cases more than the $2000 increase for teachers in the 23-25 years of service range would have to be “caught up” to the level in the contract.
Head of the Plymouth PEA, Laura Kruyer, came before the board to say that at their recent meeting, the teachers had voted in unanimous support for the board’s approval of the contract.
Kruyer and Plymouth High School teacher Curtis Nordmann both spoke to the board about another issue of concern, the cost of health insurance. Kruyer said the hardest hit were those on the family plan for the school with some seeing an increase of $3000 to the plan.
Kruyer said the problem is not unique to the school corporation, that most families are struggling with the rising costs, but pointed to the fact that the state legislature determines funding for public schools in Indiana and urged the board to also start to “ring the bell” and talk to legislators and community members about a solution to the problem.
Kruyer emphasized that she and the members of the PEA were absolutely in favor of the contract as “the best we can do and be fiscally responsible,” and she was merely pointing out a concern they have that they felt should be addressed in search of a solution.
The Plymouth Board will have their regular monthly meeting on Monday, November 4.
