MUNCIE — Meg Jercha, a 4th grade teacher at Northview Elementary in Muncie Community Schools, is in her tenth year with the district and to her surprise, just learned she’ll be getting an addition $5,200 added to her annual salary at the start of next school year.
“It was a very pleasant surprise I don’t think anyone knew it was happening. Especially with the year we’ve had. We can take a deep breath now and on top of that here’s this nice pay raise,” Jercha said.
“It’s all because of our general assembly and the unprecedented amount that they put in the budget for Indiana public schools,” Dr. Leann Kwiatkowski, Director of Public Education and CEO of Muncie Community Schools said.
Here's what the breakdown looks like. The raises for active teachers in the district are based on their teaching experience and time with Muncie Community Schools:
- 1 – 4 years of teaching experience: $4,300
- 5 – 10 years of teaching experience: $4,200 + $1,000 MCS experience = $5,200
- 11 – 19 years of teaching experience: $4,000 + $1,000 MCS experience = $5,000
- 20+ years of teaching experience: $2,400 + $1,000 MCS experience = $3,400
Additionally, starting salaries for teachers will increase from $38,500 to $42,000.
“The state has challenged school districts to have beginning teacher salary at $40,000. Of course, we want to be competitive so we went a little bit above that,” Kwiatkowski said. “Part of our strategy is we want to retain and recruit the best teachers in the state and a way to do that is by signaling what kind of salary they will have next year.”
