Stipend for advisors?

[Ellery]

The Rochester City School Disctrict had never paid any of our teachers yet for FIRST particiaption all these years. This year there's a little advancement of recognition that's in progress that is so far allowing FIRST to be used for teacher credit. As for stipends go we'll see how it goes as talks continue to recognize FIRST as an official school team activity like sporting teams. The other school districts will vary but start around $800 - $1700 I've heard.

[JudyVandy]

At the present time, we are 4 school districts with 3 different policies.

I've been with FIRST for 10 years and have consistently been considered a volunteer by my district. With that said, I do get perks: anytime I do something with FIRST, by myself or with the team, it's considered conference time and I just get the time off. My situation is a little different, however: I'm a school counselor and don't have a substitute. My work is waiting when I get back, or I've stayed till ??? to get it done before I go.

Another teacher is a volunteer. He is in a classroom, needs a sub when he's gone, and so needs to plan, and sometimes not go because of conflicts.

A third teacher is paid a stipend on par with club sponsors. He also needs to plan for travel with the team.

The fourth school has a parent who is the 'official, school supported' school rep. He is a volunteer. Again, plans for travel with the team.

Several years ago, we had a fifth school as part of our team. This teacher was paid on a scale with a sport coach. Needless to say, we were all jealous!

To a certain extent, the money right now isn't necessarily that important. It does hurt a bit when you realize that it does have an impact especially on those of us who are close to retirement, and so the amount of reimbursement does impact our retirement!

[Liz Smith]

At our school, im unsure of the dollar amount our teachers have recived as a stipend, but we also like to nominate our teachers for school district wide awards at the end of the year. One in particular is given by very active members of the community who generously provide them with a little extra money bonus. I don't know if your community has something like that, but its a nice way to show our appreciation for our hard working advisors.

[wheeler]

Currently the advisors for team 1002 are unpaid except travel. We are working with our school board now to change this so that there would be a paid head coach and two assistants just as the provide for other large participation sport teams. We were asked to submit hours spent to find a similiar coaching base. The head advisor hours equal about 1100 which equals 27.5 school weeks. No coach has that many hour requirements so the newest discussion is to make it like the band director and assistants because they are paid as a year round stipend due to band camps, marching, and concert bands. If this happens in our county that will result in a ~$7000 stipend for head and ~$3000 for assistants.

[santosh]

Originally Posted by wheeler

The head advisor hours equal about 1100 which equals 27.5 school weeks.

Haha, if only it was 1100 hours. That calculation is by far wrong. I re-did these calculations after you lost my first ones and found it to be like 1700... and I think that is still a bit low because of prevalent random instances..

Back on topic..
I think if you can have a estimate of your hours and compare these with the hours of coaches along with comparing your impact on the community as to the coaches in your school (not saying that coaches don't put in any time and make no impact on the community), then you may be able to cause some change.

[Hieb]

Some other figures you might want to have available when discussing this, in addition to the number of hours committed to the team, would be the number of students impacted, perhaps relevant demographic information about the team (are students from underrepresented minorities represented, presenting further grant opportunities), and how many team members graduate and pursue higher education in FIRST related fields. It would more the discussion away from a "look how much work I have to do" feeling to "look at all of the positive influences this program has on our students." It also opens their eyes to something else positive for the district (that they can take credit for) that may help with other funding in the future.

[RoboMom]

I am checking in to see if there are others that have info to add. I am trying to get a range of figures for stipends for teacher advisors for FIRST.

[dtengineering]

Well, I don't know if this helps, but in British Columbia teachers who are robotics sponsors are paid exactly the same as teachers who are coaches.

But that's because all extracurricular activities are unpaid and voluntary for public school teachers in BC.

Based on my experience coaching basketball and robotics, there is no doubt in my mind that if a sports coach receives $x then a robotics coach should, too.

Jason

[JohnBoucher]

For the first seven years, 237 had an unpaid teacher who started the program up. Pal's travel expenses were paid, no stipend. He then retired.

The 8th year we could not find a teacher, but we could not travel without one. The school adminstration took turns traveling. The team paid the travel expenses.

The 9th year, we got a 1st year teacher involved, the school board came up with $1600 for a stipend, the team paid for travel. He's gone.

The only thing I know for this year is we have the stipend. No teacher yet.

[Hieb]

I've moved to a new school since my previous posts, and at 2014 we were approved this year for extra duty contracts commensurate with coaching (my soccer, robotics, and track salaries are all roughly the same).

[Jeremiah Johnson]

We used to have 2 teachers, 1 from West and 1 from Sherrard. For the past 3 seasons we've only had 1 teacher, from Sherrard. Why? Because he got extra $$ from the school while the other didn't. Sherrard's former teacher and founder didn't get stipends, though. Unfortunately, we lost the West teacher who was amazingly good at keeping people on task while being able to get off task if need be. Heck, he played knockout with us everynight after the meetings. I wish he could come back...

[TubaMorg]

WHAT?!? All that fun and you get PAID too? Who'd a thunk!

[Ellery]

The Rochester City School District doesn't pay anything nor do they fully recognize the teachers using it as enhancement credits either. The last I heard they would have allowed teachers to count them toward advancement credits but I'm not sure it stuck. The governor of NY supposed is being spoken to by our Finger Lakes RC Chairman and the new education director in Albany was the RCSD Superintendent that supported FIRST when he was here. There may be something coming down for NY state but I'll won't believe it till I see it.

[falconmaster]

Science Foundation Arizona, through the Arizona FIRST planning committee, is providing a half a million dollars to promote the development of FIRST in Arizona!
Among some of the aspects of the grant they are providing $6,000.00 to new FRC teams and schools that fall under the category of Title I or rural. They are also providing $3000.00 to the teacher mentor as a stipend. $1000.00 for tools. They want 13 new FRC teams, 20 new FTC teams and 30 new FLL teams.
Team 842 has brought in 4 new schools to date and three new FLL teams. They are hosting the FTC and FLL qualifying events for the state. FIRST is growing in AZ. It looks like there are 7 new FRC teams so far out of the 13 new ones wanted!

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by falconmaster

$3000.00 to the teacher mentor as a stipend.

Dang, can the non-teacher mentors get in on that action?!! That's excellent - I hope those funds can secure some truly dedicated teachers for the new teams.