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By Cara Hetland
September 10, 1999
Part of MPR Online's "Back to School '99" series
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Teacher raiding is becoming common practice as the nation faces a teacher shortage. Two million teachers were needed this fall. In Minnesota, competition between districts means the best staff is often going to the highest bidder. Signing bonuses are becoming commonplace, as is districts paying moving expenses and broken contract penalties . The financial incentives benefits all teachers in the long run.
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Makitrick: The staff was great, the kids were great. I quite honestly wasn't looking for another job. When I received a phone call last spring from Dr. Taper from Marshall Public Schools, he just asked if I'd be interested in coming down and taking a look at what they had to offer.The informal discussion turned into a formal interview and Makitrick was offered the job and a larger salary. Pipestone Superintendent Jerry Horgen countered with a pay increase but he couldn't match Marshall's offer. Horgen says he lost two staff to teacher raiding and he convinced one to stay.
Horgen: We had a chemistry teacher that was sought after by two other school districts and we had to end up giving her an extra raise to keep her. We lost our high school principal through a bidding war to the Marshall district. They won out. AndSioux Falls took away from Minnesota our best band teacher.
Horgen says he does the same thing to other districts. It's fair game. But he's trying other methods to attract teachers to Pipestone.
Horgen: There's sometimes a penalty when a teacher leaves a district beyond a certain date. We're more than happy to pay that penalty and we'll help them get settled here. It's a case of a shortage and if you want a good foreign language program you have to go after foreign language teachers. You may have to offer them a bonus. They're doing that in Minnesota and we'll do that if we have to.It's the signing bonuses and moving expenses that's causing officials at Education Minnesota, the teachers union, to sit up and take notice. Michael Katzenmeyer is the southwestern Minnesota field representative. He says if a district offers signing bonuses it has to be done with the blessing of the local teaching association.
Katzenmeyer: Otherwise it constitutes an unfair labor practice because administrations and school boards would go out and offer fringe benefits and salary incentives which aren't contained in the master agreement. And that's a violation of the public employees labor relation act which we hold very true and dear in Minnesota.Katzenmeyer says teacher raiding and incentives are more common in Minnesota. He says teachers negotiating the next two year contract will use it as a means to boost base salaries.
Minnesota ranks 17th in the nation for teacher pay. The average salary is $38,000. It's the highest among neighboring states. South Dakota pays teachers the lowest at an average of $27,000.
Aitkin Superintendent Ed Anderson heads the Minnesota's superintendent organization. He says offering bonuses and moving expenses is up to each district. He says one district may choose to boost salaries across the board while others look for incentives. Anderson says either way it has to be agreed upon between the teaching staff and administration.
Anderson: If something isn't explicitly forbidden, you might be able to make a case with going forward with that. But then again you're always risking a challenge.The Pipestone teachers see pulling out all the stops to attract good teachers as a way to save public education in the district. Richard Schroyer heads the negotiating team. He says as long as superintendent Jerry Horgen notifies staff what he's doing it's legal. Schroyer says the district has a harder time attracting teachers because of its school.
Central School is over 100 years old and is listed by the fire marshal as the worst school building in the state. Schroyer says boosting salaries is a nice idea for existing staff but won't do much to bring in new teachers.
Schroyer: I don't think a $5,000 boost in pay would do much for us. I really don't. I think people come to our building and they see it and they just don't want to work here and they're willing to take less money at a better facility. We're really in dire straits here.
Two bond referendums to build a new building have failed in as many years. The district is hoping to have another proposal for voters this winter.
Superintendent Jerry Horgen says he'll even offer extra salary in the form of bonuses for years of experience to a first year teacher to get them to come. Especially in the hard to fill positions of foreign languages, sciences and industrial arts.Horgen: In industrial arts, for example, we had several candidates we wanted to hire and we took them on a tour of the building and they said, no, we don't want to work here. They had no experience, we gave them seven years experience in terms of pay to come here and all of them turned us down.Horgen says there's a shortage all over and the district that can afford to spend the most wins.
Districts in border communities are complaining the pay is already higher in Minnesota. Sioux Falls Personnel Director Joanne Smith says South Dakota districts can't compete with the bonuses and moving expenses.Smith: That makes it very difficult for those of us who are working with working agreements and also with dealing with equity for all staff members coming into the district. That if someone is offering an enticing or could be considered a bribe that would really negate the kinds of things we do in trying to have equity among our staff and fairness in our hiring practices.Smith says education administrators are also competing with private industry who can entice teachers even more to leave the profession. She says the nation has only just begun to see the impact of teacher raiding both from within and and outside education.
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