Penn-Harris-Madison approves salary increases for teachers, coaches and extracurriculars

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported raises would be capped at $2,940. All teachers will receive 7% raises.

MISHAWAKA — Raises are coming soon for Penn-Harris-Madison teachers.

The P-H-M school board unanimously approved a new, one-year contract Monday night, bringing salary increases to teachers of all experiencelevels and increasing the district's starting teacher pay by nearly $3,000.

In an effort to help retain teachers, the district will offer a raise of 7% to those who are rated effective or highly effective in annual evaluations. All P-H-M teachers fell into those eligible categories this year, Director of Human Resources Lisa Soto Kile said.

All raises are retroactive, meaning teachers will be paid their increased rate no later than this December, according to the contract.

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The corporation's total salary range will increase from $42,000-$72,348 to $44,900-$77,412 under the new contract, making P-H-M one of the highest paying districts for starting teachers, at least for the time being.

South Bend schools are offering $43,000 to starting teachers this year as a part of a two-year contract negotiated with mediators last winter. The School City of Mishawaka currently offers a $43,000 base salary to starting teachers. The district, however, is expected to review an updated contract for the 2022-2023 school year later this week.

"With this salary increase, P-H-M has one of the highest starting salaries in the region," Board President Christopher Riley said in a news release. "In a competitive market and a national teacher shortage, the P-H-M board supports the administration's collaborative negotiations with the P-H-M Teachers' Association to help attract teachers to work at P-H-M."

P-H-M also agreed to offer its returning teachers, including those with effective or highly effective ratings, a one-time stipend of $600 to be paid no later than December, according to the contract.

Athletic and extracurricular salary ranges will also increase by 3% for the 2022-23 school year.

Negotiations took place during the week of Sept. 26 and members of the teachers union voted to approve the contract on Oct. 4.

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PHMTA President Lisa Langfeldt expressed her appreciation to administrators in a news release.

"It is no secret that every school district in Indiana is facing a teacher shortage," Langfeldt said. "This agreement will not only help in recruiting the best and brightest, it provides a very generous increase to those teachers currently serving the P-H-M community."

The raises come after state lawmakers in April 2021 directed nearly $2 billion new dollars to K-12 education for the current funding biennium. As a part of that boost, lawmakers also directed districts to use at least 45% of their state funding for teacher pay.

Legislators will meet again in a budget session this winter to determine the next two years of K-12 funding. The state ended its most recent fiscal year with $6.1 billion in reserves before lawmakers authorized a plan to return an anticipated $1 billion to taxpayers.

P-H-M administrators and school board members praised teachers for their work, especially in the last couple of years through the pandemic and a return to in-person learning.

"P-H-M has a longstanding great working relationship with our PHMTA," Superintendent Jerry Thacker said. "Working together we can recruit and retain the brightest and best!"

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Penn-Harris-Madison board approves salary increase for teachers