A state agency focused on improving the social environment of schools is closing in on submitting its final recommendations after reviewing a 25-item draft Monday night. The 24-member Student Behavior and School Climate Task Force, made up of government and educational officials as well as school behavioral specialists and resource officers, is focusing on family engagement, safety on school buses, …
Teacher absenteeism calls for staff flexibility, strategies
A human resources director for the largest school district in Sussex County shocked a House Education Committee hearing in April when she told them about 300 of its 1,000 educators are off on any given school day. About 800 of those educators are teachers, and their absenteeism rains down problems for the district, said Celeste Bunting, director of human resources …
Heated debate ends in vote to raise teacher pay over 4 years
Defying the demands of the state teachers union, a committee formed to make recommendations on educator pay voted Monday to bring teacher’s starting salary to $60,000 over four years rather than three. The four-year plan will consist of a 2% salary increase and a flat dollar increase of $1,875 to the base salary for teachers, nurses and administrators each year …
State teachers’ union asks for base pay hike
Delaware’s teacher union proposed a new salary schedule Monday that includes a base pay of $60,000. Of that base pay, $42,000 would come from the state — $12,000 more than it’s currently paying. Under the plan, teacher salaries would be raised over three years, costing the state $134.5 million in total. By the final year, total teacher salaries would cost …
Nat’l group wants teachers educated about union alternatives
Opt Out Today, a national campaign to encourage teachers and other government workers to leave their unions, is ramping up its presence in the First State. So far, 69 Delawareans — mostly teachers — have left their union through the program, said Hunter Tower, director of Freedom Foundation Pennsylvania. The Freedom Foundation’s stated mission is to batter “the entrenched power …