Teacher Stipends
 

Given - that the one of the largest, if not the 1st, impediment to institutionalizing co-curricular STEM programs like FIRST is the lack of teacher incentive, there are people working to resolve this issue.

QUESTION(s):

a) does your local or state school district provide stipends

b) if so what are the parameters, hour worked, stipend paid, state or local funding ?

I'm not interested in data for non-teachers.

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Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Clear Creek ISD offers a stipend to teachers who work with the district robotics program. The funds come out of our local funds and are paid to the staff member as a one time lump sum.
The amounts differ by level and are per campus not per teacher.
Elementary stipend $150.00

FIRST LEGO League Coaches

Intermediate Stipend $300

BEST and VEX Coaches

High School Stipend (FIRST, VEX and BEST) $1,500.00

Sponsors for a minimum of two programs

Please feel free to contact me if you need any more information.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

These high school numbers match what our district used to do (we no longer have a teacher directly involved since this last season). I believe this was per semester as well.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Wave has established a couple of different ways of providing a stipend for teachers. We run our program through the Recreational Department but in Oshkosh it is controlled by the school district.

We have two positions through the Recreational Department:

Lego League Advisor (Responsible for helping coordinate the Oshkosh FLL program and being the go to person for coaches): .04 position of base teacher salary = $1,312.00

Click here to read the Lego League Advisor Job Description

Wave Robotics Advisor (Responsible for all teacher related matters and other matters) for the Wave Robotics program: .08 position of base teacher salary = $2624.00

Click here to read the Wave Robotics Advisor Job Description

Through the school district we have five FLL coach positions, one for each middle school. The funds from these positions came from the Destination Imagination positions that were vacant and had little to no chance of being filled. Each coach receives $784.30

Click here to read the FLL coaches job description.

Our elementary schools are not funded by the school district for FLL. However we have two elementary schools that have created stipends for the $784.30 amount through their own personal school accounts. Also one of our middle schools have provided an extra stipend for a second coach out of their own funding.

All positions require the applicant to have a Wisconsin certified teachers license.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

As far as I know, our teacher, who is the head mentor, is not compensated for anything. Actually, before our team got active on sponsors and fundraising, a lot of the funding came out of his own pocket.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Our teacher/mentor receives a $1500 stipend as a "team coach" which she uses to help fund the team.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

All our teacher-mentor-coaches receive stipends from our district. I do not know the amount - low four figures certainly, about the same as a club mentor. It is funded locally

Of course, it doesn't even come close to compensating for actual hours worked.

I do not know if there is a certain minimum commitment required

Everyone else is an unpaid volunteer.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Teacher stipends for FRC? Sign me up!

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Question: Please make suggestions as to the stipend amounts, based on the following discussion.

Our team has worked for at least two years on this issue of institutionalizing these programs. It has led us to briefings to the Congressional Robotics Caucus, U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressmen, state and local politicians including the Governor, state school superintendent, and so on and so forth.

What we are working on right now is a highly specific proposal to attempt to introduce into the budget process.

We are working on a model for FLL, FTC/VEX, and FRC programs. For each program, there needs to be at least two items. a) stipend amount, b) time/effort requirements for the teachers to fulfill. We will initially introduce this into the Cobb School District. I'm not suggesting we are going to get anywhere with this in the near future, but eventually this has to be done. That's about all there is to that, IMHO.

For a comparative analysis, the stipends for other CCSD programs are listed in these tables.

Academic Supplements

Athletic Supplements - Asst Coaches

Athletic Supplements - Head Coaches

JROTC Supplements

Middle School Intramural Supplements

Music Supplements

We also want to build a model that has a) one teacher, and b) two teachers.

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Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Before retiring from the school district, one of my duties was to run the debate program in our middle and high schools. We paid a stipend to debate coaches, though not very much. I think it was about $450 per semester for middle school, maybe as much as $750-1000 per semester for high school. This was not much money for the hours involved since most debate teams practice every afternoon and compete monthly (middle school) or weekly (high school). For the high school's at least, this usually involved an overnight trip.

Those teachers worked very hard for the little money they got. But it was very important to them to be recognized monetarily by the school system for their contribution small though the stipend was.

A little money can buy a LOT of hard work and, more importantly, good will.

Dr. Bob

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Teachers get a $250 stipend from Shaker High School. I think both of them just give the money to the team.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Dr. Bob, I'm guessing you were with Dekalb school system ??

According to the CCSD schedule, debate paid $ 2027 for HS level.

Ed

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

With respect to the Toronto District School Board - the 4th largest public school board in North America:

a) does your local or state school district provide stipends

No. Not for robotics, nor for any other extra-curricular activity.

b) if so what are the parameters, hour worked, stipend paid, state or local funding?

N/A.

As much as I would love for the TDSB to be able to encourage participation with a sizable stipend, the realist in me knows the business case can't be made. Some information in this thread shows a football coach in a board receiving a $9000+ stipend - but there's a good chance the football programs there generate revenues that easily cover that expense.

For a board like the TDSB, where good experienced teachers are generally paid decently, the purpose of a stipend would be to avoid the loss of good teachers who have already made the commitment to robotics.

Beyond the hours that teachers spend, little expenses inevitably come up throughout the year.

Granted, most teachers will expense direct-robot related costs to the team...

But there are little things: take-out dinners for the family when you are absent, baby-sitters, gas for part pick-up runs, roaming charges when you're at competition out of the country, the list goes on and on...

The dedicated teacher accepts these things are going to happen, and normally just shrugs them off. But when they happen it's nice to be able to know that they're somewhat "covered."

I actually tracked my non-reimbursed robotics "expenses" last year in as a teacher in Quicken, and they were somewhere in the ballpark of around $450 CDN. Of course, your mileage may vary :p.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

I disagree. We get what we celebrate. The proof of that is in the compensation.

As much as I love football, and with all due respect...The mission of the school is to educate students, not create players for the NFL. I don't have problem with the coach stipend, but I do have a problem with the inequity, especially given the mission schools.

Re - the 'business case'.
a) how many professional athletes live in our school district, and pay local taxes ?
b) how many people work in this district that directly and indirectly benefit from the effects STEM education has on the local job market.

School district funded stipends is is a different funding source than revenues collected through other aspects of the football funding.

Re the 'business case - The case is there..


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Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Our tiny little town has a stipend for FRC coach and for FRC assistant coach; ~$1800 and ~$600 respectively, with the exact amount contract-dependent.

I think for me last year it came in at about $0.17 an hour. Woo!

I did it for free the first year, but after that was told that the union would not allow unpaid extracurricular duties, so they had to give me money. I was cool with that...

I offer that last tidbit not as an amusing anecdote but as an obstacle that some teams might have in establishing a new team.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Very interesting argument, I guess the difference is the return on the football coaches stipend happens within the same year, where as the other is a nonspecific time period down the road (and maybe not even return on their investment, but from others who went to other schools... and vice versa).

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

The school district I am in highly supports robotics as a whole, mainly Vex and FIRST. I am now the head teacher for middle school initiatives. I do receive stipends for the schools that I work with (high school robotics not included). We only receive around $600 per school that we work at. This is meant to cover travel to/from school expenses. On the flip side of that, the school funds many of our projects and allow us to purchase quite a bit of materials for the clubs. This, in my opinion, is a greater asset then paying me more.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

The School District in which I volunteer for FIRST has absolutely no interest in FIRST whatsoever. They have actually tried to steal our sponsors away for other programs that they are more interested in. Slowly but surely our relationship is getting better but I would still call it "rocky". Currently as a mentor of the team I recieve no stipend from the school district and our head advisor who is a teacher for the school district also does not recieve a stipend. The only way the school district supports our team is through the room they let us use. It is the same for our sister high school on the other side of our city. (their team number is 3184)

I have sent multiple letters and emails to community leaders such as the city council and the superindendent most which end in no replies, or when I was still a student at the school I recieved a call from my principal explaining to me the concept of "dollars and cents". Advisors for just about every single other program (Debate, Speech, all sports teams etc.) do recieve stipends.

Summary: Anything to do with FIRST or Robotics in our school district is entirely volunteer based.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

QUESTION(s):

a) does your local or state school district provide stipends
Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the US pays no stipends for robotics coaches. Principles have some discretion and could fund them if they wanted to. But the principal knows I will do it for free, even as I am trying to figure out how to pay my own bills.

b) if so what are the parameters, hour worked, stipend paid, state or local funding ? N/A

Los Angeles Unified School District is not anti-robotics just clueless. Its just not on their radar. We have talked to our board member and our supervisor a little but were they really listening?

LAUSD has very few schools in robotics, just 2 years ago only 2 FRC teams. The vast majority of teams in Los Angeles County are from private schools or other smaller school districts.

We will have to keep working on them.

All of the funding for the team and the two classes come from fund-raising and grants, or my pocket. OUR ROBOTICS TEAM supports the two classes. When football sells tickets the money goes back into athletics, so no academics are supported, unlike robotics.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

Last I knew ours was $4000 for the coach(as long as they were school personnel). It was one thing our original coach set up through the school when she retired in 2008 because she knew we would have a tough time finding another coach.

The year after she retired, the only person we could get to agree to coach(after the school appointed robotics coach/football coach decided the 2 conflicted to much) was one of our history teachers who did not know a thing about FIRST. It made for a interesting year but he made a comment towards the end of the year that the stipend did not make it worthwhile due to gas prices to get to build.

Although now the team has our first choice pick of coach from 2009. So everything worked out in the long run.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

When 3193 was formed 2 years ago, we were informed that the school board would not fund an extra-curricular robotics program with money from the district, but myself and the other lead mentor were to be given a $1000 stipend by the school board for our work. However, when we went to collect, we found out that the stipend actually was to come from the money that we raised on our own for team expenses through grants and other fundraisers and would therefore affect our overall team budget (Hey, $2000 is a lot of money to most teams). We balked at the idea of taking away money from the team so as not to take money away from the team and did not accept the "stipend". We had to sign a paper that we "donated" the money back to the team.

The positions were changed the next year to be volunteer positions receiving a $50 stipend (so that we would still be considered "paid school employees" and have access to the school during off-hours). And yes, the money was to come from the team budget. We took the money this time, but then turned around and used it on team expenses (at least I think we took the money--can't remember).

The lack of formal stipends from the school board has kept all of our industrial arts teachers away from working with the robotics program, opting to take other paid positions such as Assistant Baseball Coach or Drama Club Advisor...really annoying!

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

I havent even heard of any teacher or mentor getting money for helping with clubs or sports. I know that no teacher gets paid to coach or help with any club or sport. Maybe its because my team is from Canada not the usa.

In my opinion teachers should (edit: shouldn't) get paid to Volunteer. The teachers and mentors on my team, do so much the reward of knowing that they helped out students was a big enough reward for them. Our lead teacher spends Hours away from his family to help out, and goes for days when a competitions. I dont see why teachers and mentors should get paid for something they want to do, its almost like a hobby, You love doing it, its rewarding knowing you accomplished something, but you don't get paid for it.

Just my opinion though. :P

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

I fully support teachers and mentors getting paid whenever they help out the team. In doing so, they tend to lose the ability to be considered volunteer. Afterall, once you get paid to do something it becomes a job. Perhaps I'm playing semantics, but volunteering is a job when you get nothing out of it other then the feeling of a job well done.

Jason

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

**Update** With FIRST Robotics being accepted into the MSHSL (Minnesota State High School League) everything I posted above is subject to change.

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

I love running our robotics team but there are many things I have to do that are not directly related to showing kids how to build robots. Not trying to rain on your parade but the paperwork alone is enough for me to justify a stipend. The hours away from my family, the hours I spend doing robotics work rather than playing with my daughters makes me feel somewhat OK with the money. When I started 12 years ago I had no desire to get paid for the time. Like Patrick said, our school union would not let me volunteer to run the club unpaid. It makes other teachers look bad for taking money and sets a bad precedence with the district.

I would rather not say exactly how much I make but we have 3 positions with the school. 1 club advisor and 2 club assistants. The total money for the club is slightly over $4000 and is divided up so that the advisor gets about twice as much as the assistants. (you can do the math to figure out about how much I make) I tried to do an actual hourly wage and it somehow came out to around $2.00/hour. I figured it was a lot worse than that.


So at $.17/hour, does that mean that Patrick spends over 10,000 hours every year on robotics? Unless my math is wrong that is more than 1 year per year, astounding! Where do you find the time? ( no really how did you add an extra month to the calendar and spend it all on robotics and never sleep?)

Re: Teacher Stipends
 

We don't receive a stipend in the district where I teach. Last year was our rookie year but it was made clear to me when I formed the team that it would remain self funded.

-Mr B