“This is the city’s way of saying, ‘We want you to be part of our community, ’ ” said Learn to Earn Dayton executive director Tom Lasley. “(The money) is not the magnitude that we would love to have, but it’s a statement about how important we think it is to have high-quality teachers in this community.”
Amy Riegel from the city’s community development division said the stipend is a one-year pilot program, for teachers from Dayton Public Schools and the Dayton Leadership Academy charter school.
“We’re trying to figure out, as we expand, how we can engage each of the charter or private schools so they can participate also,” Riegel said.
Human resources director Lisa Lewis said DPS has already hired 75 new teachers for next school year, with more to come. According to the Dayton’s teachers’ union contract, a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree will start with a salary of $37,336.
Thomas Ballauer was one of three dozen newly hired DPS teachers who heard about the program at an orientation session Thursday. The former charter school teacher said he hasn’t heard of other schools doing anything similar.
“It’s really showing that commitment to the city,” Ballauer said. “Dayton’s trying to grow, and this makes you feel valued in a society that doesn’t necessarily value its teachers.”
The teachers watched a marketing video on highlights of downtown Dayton, including arts groups, the Dragons baseball team, the library renovation project and new housing.
City commissioners Jeff Mims and Joey Williams — both former school board members and fathers of DPS students and graduates — said neither the city nor the schools can prosper unless the other is healthy.
The financial bonus was one of three incentives explained to incoming teachers Thursday. Lasley said Sinclair Community College will offer a $1,500 scholarship to middle school or high school teachers who want to become “adjunct-eligible” to teach college-level courses. And Learn to Earn is partnering with the Victoria Theatre Association to provide opening-night theater parties.
Dayton teachers union president David Romick said the incentive programs are a good idea, given the urgent need for teacher recruiting in Dayton and other urban schools. He said he’d talk to the city about incentives for current high-quality teachers who stay with DPS.
Romick and Dayton superintendent Lori Ward said it is a good thing when teachers are involved in the community where they work.
“Children want to be able to see their teacher when they go to the grocery store, or at a church service,” Ward said of building a shared connection. “They can talk together about what’s going on in the city.”
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