Transcripts

CARA HETLAND: Marshall Senior High Principal Wade McKittrick is the new kid on the block this year. He was this time last year, too, but in a different district. McKittrick was lured away from Pipestone's high school last spring, after just months on the job.

WADE MCKITTRICK: The staff was great. The kids were great. And quite honestly, I was not looking for another job. When I received a phone call last spring from Dr. Tapper from Marshall Public Schools, and he just asked if I'd be interested in coming down and taking a look at what they have to offer.

CARA HETLAND: The informal discussion turned into a formal interview. And McKittrick was offered the job and a larger salary. Pipestone's superintendent, Jerry Horgen, countered with a pay increase. But he could not match Marshall's offer. Horgen says he lost two staff to teacher rating. And he convinced one to stay.

JERRY HORGEN: We had a chemistry teacher that was sought after by two other school districts. And we had to end up giving her an extra raise to keep her. We lost our high school principal through a bidding war to the school district of Marshall. They won out. And Sioux Falls took away from Minnesota now our best band teacher.

CARA HETLAND: Horgen says he does the same thing to other districts. It's fair game. But he's trying other methods to attract teachers to Pipestone.

JERRY HORGEN: There's sometimes a penalty if a teacher leaves a district beyond a certain date. But we're more than happy to pay that penalty. It's not an issue with us. So we'll pay the penalty. And we'll help them get settled here.

And it's a case of a shortage. And if you don't have-- if you want a good foreign language program, you go after foreign language teachers. You may have to offer them a bonus. They're doing that in Minnesota. And we'll do that if we have to.

CARA HETLAND: It's the signing bonuses and moving expenses that's causing officials at Education Minnesota, the teachers union, to sit up and take notice. Michael Katzenmeyer is the Southwestern Minnesota Field Representative. He says if a district offers signing bonuses, it has to be done with the blessing of the local teaching association.

MICHAEL KATZENMEYER: Otherwise, it constitutes an unfair labor practice because administration and school boards would be going out and offering fringe benefits and salary incentives which aren't contained in the master agreement. And that's a violation of the Public Employees Labor Relations Act, which we hold very true and dear in Minnesota.

CARA HETLAND: Katzenmeyer says teacher rating and incentives are more common in Minnesota. He says teachers negotiating the next two-year contract will use it as a means to boost base salaries. Minnesota ranked 17th in the nation for teacher pay. The average salary is $38,000. It's the highest among neighboring states. South Dakota pays teachers the lowest, at an average of $27,000.

Aiken's superintendent, Ed Anderson, heads the Minnesota's Superintendent Organization. He says offering bonuses and moving expenses is up to each district. He says one district may choose to boost salaries across the board, while others look for incentives. Anderson says either way, it has to be agreed upon between the teaching staff and administration.

ED ANDERSON: If something isn't explicitly forbidden, you might be able to make a case for going forward with that. But then again, you're always risking a challenge.

CARA HETLAND: The Pipestone teachers see pulling out all the stops to attract good teachers as a way to save public education in the district. Richard Schroyer heads the negotiating team. He says as long as superintendent Jerry Horgen notifies staff what he's doing, it's legal. Schroyer says the district has a harder time attracting teachers because of its school. Central School is over a hundred years old and is listed by the fire marshal as the worst school building in the state. Schroyer says boosting salaries is a nice idea for existing staff but won't do much to bring in new teachers.

RICHARD SCHROYER: I don't think a $5,000 boost in pay would do much for us. I really don't. I think people come to our building and they see it. And they just don't want to work here. And they're willing to take less money at a better facility. So that's kind of where-- we're really in dire straits here.

CARA HETLAND: Two bond referendums to build a new building have failed in as many years. The district is hoping to have another proposal for voters this winter. Superintendent Jerry Horgen says he'll even offer extra salary in the form of bonuses for years of experience to a first-year teacher to get them to come, especially in the hard-to-fill positions of foreign languages, sciences, and industrial arts.

JERRY HORGEN: In industrial arts, for example, we had several candidates that we wanted to hire. We took them on a tour of the building. They took one tour of the building. And they said, no, they didn't want to work here. They had no experience. We gave them seven years' experience in terms of pay to come here. And all of them turned us down.

CARA HETLAND: Horgen says there's a shortage all over. And the district that can afford to spend the most wins. Districts in border communities are complaining the pay is already higher in Minnesota. Sioux Falls Personnel Director Joanne Smith says South Dakota districts can't compete with the bonuses and moving expenses.

JOANNE SMITH: That makes it very difficult for those of us who are working agreements and also with dealing with equity for all staff members coming into the district, that if someone is offering an enticing-- or it could be considered a bribe-- that would really negate the kinds of things that we do in trying to have equity among our staff and fairness in our hiring practices.

CARA HETLAND: Smith says education administrators are also competing with private industry, who can entice teachers even more to leave the profession. She says the nation has only just begun to see the impact of teacher rating both from within and outside education. In Sioux Falls, I'm Cara Hetland, Minnesota Public Radio.