Sioux Falls School District offering $10K bonuses to new special education teachers

The Sioux Falls School District is offering $10,000 starting bonuses to new special education teachers in an effort to fill those understaffed roles in time for the start of the next school year.

However, some teachers don’t feel the incentives are fair to veteran special education teachers who will get $2,000 stipends this upcoming school year and the next when they stay with the district in their classrooms. Two of these teachers made their opinions known during Monday night’s school board meeting.

11 full-time and two part-time special education teaching job descriptions are posted on the district’s website at various schools, with some of the job descriptions likely being for multiple positions, as district officials stated in a hiring incentive Q&A document sent to all teachers that there are more than 20 special education teacher vacancies and limited qualified applicants.

The full-time position listings specify the bonus is $10,000, and the part-time positions advertise a bonus but it’s not listed on the job descriptions.

Staff who currently teach in general education and have a special education certification can volunteer to transfer to a special education classroom and can also receive a $10,000 stipend for volunteering and transferring. Those teachers will also receive a $2,000 stipend during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years for teaching in a special education classroom.

Teachers interested in becoming a special education teacher who aren’t currently certified to teach in special education can also volunteer to transfer for a $10,000 stipend, and will have to complete a 15-credit program and praxis test funded by the district to achieve their certification. These teachers will also receive the $2,000 stipend during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years for teaching in a special education classroom.

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All teachers in special education will also receive the $2,000 stipend for teaching in special education during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. Teachers in the Bridges and Axtell Park programs will receive $4,000 stipends.

A bonus of $5,000 advertised prior to this wasn’t generating the interest needed to fill the vacancies, the district’s Q&A states.

District human resources director Becky Dorman indicated during Monday night’s school board meeting that advertising the new incentives has increased the interest of qualified candidates who are certified to teach in special education.

During public comment time, though, two teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the district’s decision to offer larger stipends to new teachers than to veteran teachers.

Lori Pokela, a teacher at Memorial Middle School, said that new teachers who came in with the previous $5,000 incentive were “underprepared and overwhelmed,” and quit mid-year, while veteran teachers had to continue to perform their essential functions and duties.

“With this ($10,000) hiring incentive, the district has allowed the salary of teachers in (the first step of the salary schedule) to exceed every row,” Pokela explained in front of the board Monday night. “That means that someone who is in their 14th year of teaching or more with their master’s degree will be making less than a brand new college graduate.”

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She also questioned what was being done to protect and retain veteran special education teachers, and asked if the board and district believed the bonus for inexperienced teachers was the most effective solution.

Jessica Mulhair, a teacher at Memorial Middle School, told the board Monday night that she loves her job and takes great pride in speaking about her profession and what she does with confidence, empathy and respect.

“However, when news of this incentive broke, I felt like it took my breath away and left me feeling really confused (on how and why) we got here as a district,” Mulhair said. “Speaking for myself and several of my colleagues, I can tell you that being on the non-receiving end of that $10,000 kind of feels like a big giant slap in the face.”

Superintendent Jane Stavem said during Monday night’s school board meeting that a shortage of special education teachers is an issue in districts across the nation. Sioux Falls has about 20 openings, while some have hundreds, she said.

“While we would rather not have to incentivize positions, I’m also not going to apologize for doing whatever we can to fill the positions that we have with the most qualified candidates that we can find,” Stavem said. “The alternative to that is making administrative moves, which I hope I don’t have to do eventually. That is something that is allowable, but what we’re hoping to do is attract candidates to our district.”

Board president Kate Serenbetz said the incentives could also attract people to move to Sioux Falls to teach in special education, and could help with their moving costs as they come to the district.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls schools offer $10K bonus to new special education teachers