Teacher Stipends

[Wayne C.]

The topic of teacher stipends has been controversial in the NJ area for a few years and I know of at least one mentor that pressed a school district to pay a stipend and had issues with management because of it.

The short of it is that if you are going to change the culture then the teachers who manage robotics teams should recieve at least the same compensation as athletics coaches.

In my opinion the successes of my team have had a far greater influence on the future careers of my students than any of the athletics programs our school offers. True, we do occasionally put out a professional athlete and that's great. But the return for the money invested is no comparison.

After years of negotiation and great success of the team our district created a stipended coach position for me and a lesser paid position for one assistant coach. I am currently pushing for others. They pay me the same as a head soccer coach. I can live with that (for now).

And of course the hours spent far exceeds the profits made from a stipend. I defy any coach of any of the sports to compare time and effort spent with my schedule for Raider Robotix.

Of course there are those teachers out there who will do nothing without a dollers per hour compensation and I really doubt that those are the people who go far with FIRST teams. You "do FIRST" because it makes you feel good and you get satisfaction from seeing the kids grow and succeed. If you are in it for a buck you will be very disappointed.


So what is next? The Cybersonics's home facility is a dream we aspire to. We need a building. Every athletic, musical and drama activity has a field or stage to do thier stuff- paid for by the district. Our team is looking for a building with a permanent FIRST field. A shop would also be nice (we have none). We are rallying the parents, mentors and resources to that end. Our teachers are developing new courses that will further develop robotics as a core to our curriculum and thus warrant more facility for it. Time to write some grants and find some funds. Hey- it cant be any harder than building a robot....


WC

[mathking]

Wayne, I completely relate to the desire for a home. We work in the shop at one of the three district high schools, which is not a bad work space but it gets cramped and messy sharing. The current tech teacher is GREAT about sharing the space with us, but it would be so much nicer if we had our own space. We could leave ongiong work out on a work table rather than picking it up, packing it up and undoing all of that the next night.

It is something we'll pursue the next time we have bond issue money. I would personally like a big open room attached to our athletic complex where we could set up a field and work on the robot. This would also keep the kids out of the school building proper. The district would like this aspect. (Not because our kids are getting in trouble but because it would mean the doors to the school wouldn't have to be open to late hours all through build cycle.)

As for stipend pay, I think the amount for robotics will increase eventually. At the very least I think they will eventually move to a stipend for each school, which would mean either more help or more money. I pray for the more help. It would be great. We have two teachers now for 70 kids, and it gets a bit difficult at times to keep track of everyone.

[galewind]

I'm going to probably sound a bit rash here, but if you've been coaching a team for a few years, and are beginning to generate results by inspiring students to actively pursue a field that they may not have without your team, then I believe it's time to approach your board in support of the program. If they're not offering you parts, tools, a place to work, and/or an adviser stipend, then they're not supporting a program that clearly is positively impacting students in the district.

Even if it's only peanuts (because compared to the hours we all put in, it will be), your board of education needs to invest in educational programs that go beyond core curriculum content standards. Like Wayne C, I get a stipend on-par with the soccer coach, and I work all-year round (as I'm sure most fo you do). The board has continued to increase support of our program, but largely because we consistently keep them informed of our progress and results. They like to see when students get inspired and get something out of a program offered within their schools.

I can't stress enough the need to have your board of education support your program beyond just allowing you to have one. Presentations and testimonies can help sway a board in your favor, but it must be noted that you need their support in order to function, be it through a dedicated place to work, parts/tools, general funding, and/or adviser stipends.

[waialua359]

Our State even with only one regional under its belt, is already working towards "pushing" for stipends for teacher, mentors, and/or volunteers for working with 1 of the 6 possible robotics programs in the State of Hawaii.
If our current bill originating from the Senate passes in its current measure, this will become a reality for those involved.
This is in no way something that should be looked upon negatively. We would only be following in the footsteps of every major sport from the school level, to college level, to the professional stage.
If society can afford to put up gyms for basketball/volleyball, football and baseball fields, etc., then they can certainly put up an establishment and support system for an "academic" sport much like "physical" sports.

[kawelch]

I don't think there is any reason to give a stipend to any teacher that can be suckered into being the school's representative on the team. Teachers are already way overpaid for the little work they do. It isn't like they are pro atheletes that really do work and since the students they are working with will never be able to contribute to society the way a football coach's students can contribute to the betterment of society.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[Rick TYler]

Stipends would be nice for all mentors, I suppose, but I would be happy if it just didn't cost so much out of my own pocket...

[mathking]

I will heartily second Rick's comment. My $800 will not cover all of what I spent, but it does keep the costs down. If my school district paid the entry fee for the team I would give up my stipend personally. (Though as I said in an earlier post, the stipend will be crucial in finding my eventual replacement.) This would probably allow us to go to more than one regional and have a more competitive team. More importantly it would give more kids a chance to do meaningful work at competition.

I would never argue that what I do is more important than what every football coach does. I know of one relatively famous inner city football coach here in Ohio who has a staggeringly high percentage of his students go on to college, most of them not to play football. I don't actually think my job is as hard as being a high school coach. Our head coach certainly puts in as many hours as I do. Like it or not (and I most certainly don't) the football program at a great many high schools is placed on a giant pedestal. No one is going to call for me to be fired because we went 3-4 at the championships. For that matter I am not going to get fired for a bad record in cross-country either. But if our football coach went 4-6 there would be many people calling for his head. So it is a higher pressure job. But I certainly think that what we do in FIRST is at the VERY least as important as football.

That said, I can't complain. While our school district doesn't come up with much money, we do have a place to work. The other advisor and I do not have to take personal days to travel to competitions. I have an administration at my high school that is very supportive of the program. Our principals value it and help make it happen. Even going to bat to work around new overnight trip rules that would have forced me to either take days off without pay or not go to the Championships. Heck our athletic director has spent the only night in a week he did not have to be at school in the evening covering a build meeting for me. And we have a robotics booster committee that is just plain awesome. They work year round to support the FRC and FLL teams and raise thousands of dollars a year. So I know that there are a lot of teams that struggle more than we do.