Whito Board Approves Teacher ContractLARWILL – Whitko School Board held a special meeting Monday night to approve the teachers’ master contract prior to the state deadline of Thursday.
The board voted unanimously to approve the contract, which is in effective retroactively to the start of the school year and will continue until June 30, according to a news release from the school corporation.
The contract takes advantage of a concept referred to as “Mind the Gap,” where a school corporation can increase salaries of certain teachers based on criteria approved at the state level. Whitko Community School Corporation will increase expenditures on teachers’ salaries by approximately 2.5 percent, the release states.
“We are pleased to work collaboratively with the Whitko Classroom Teachers Association (WCTA) to agree on this 2018-19 master contract. Based on academic need, we were able to increase salaries to a segment of teachers who had fallen behind their peers while increasing our expected expenditures on teacher salaries by 2.5 percent. Thank you to the Whitko Community School Corporation School Board and the Whitko Classroom Teachers Association for their hard work on this contract to ensure passage prior to the deadline,” Superintendent Dr. Brandon Penrod stated in the release.
Whitko Classroom Teachers Association President Kathy Wright said, “We appreciate the collegial process with which all parties conducted themselves. It was great to get right to work with the new superintendent and we wish to thank the teachers, administrators and board for sharing the hard work that went into the 2018-19 negotiating session.”
