School Board Approves Teacher Contract Agreement
SYRACUSE — During a very brief special meeting Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Syracuse lasting less than five minutes, the Wawasee School Board approved the 2019-20 teacher contract agreement.
Jim Evans, director of finances for the Wawasee Community School Corporation, explained a new state law, SEA 390, requires three additional steps in the process to approve a teacher contract. One public meeting must be held prior to negotiations and one must be held for the school board to approve the contract agreement, as well as a third meeting sometime in between.
Teachers with a bachelor’s degree and one or more years of experience and who have been rated effective or highly effective will get a $1,000 pay raise. Teachers with a master’s degree, one or more years of experience and are rated effective or highly effective will get a $1,300 pay raise.
And teachers will now be automatically enrolled in the sick leave bank unless they opt out. The sick leave bank is used by those who have an extended illness and have used up their normal allotment of sick days.
There were no public comments.
The board also approved a 2.5% pay raise for classified and administrative employees for the 2019-20 school year. And approval was given to change the base daily mileage to 60 miles per day minimum to cover all bus drivers in the school corporation.