By Jared M. Swain
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Local school teachers are asking the Baltimore County Board of Education for help to reinstate stipends that 13 educators will lose next year under a budget provision approved by the General Assembly in 2015.
The teachers told the school board during an April 19 meeting that the stipends – which could be as high as $4,000 a year – were needed so educators could further their training by earning advanced degrees or teaching certificates.
They said the state’s new budget provision will impact teachers who did not meet stipend requirements after the 2014 fiscal year.
“I am here tonight to bring to your attention an inequity that is negatively affecting 13 [Baltimore County Public School] teachers who hold National Board Certification,” Thomas Keller, a science teacher at Hereford High School, said during a public hearing before the school board. “I, as well as other National Board Certified Teachers who are affected, are seeking your help to reinstate the [county’s board certification] … stipend that, as of now, will be denied this year.”
According to Keller, there are 124 teachers in the county school system with the National Board Certifications. Of those, he said 111 will be receiving stipends of $1,000 from the state and $1,000 from the county. The group of 13 teachers who will not be receiving stipends call themselves the “Unlucky 13.”
Through the Quality Teacher Incentive Act of 1999, stipends were provided to teachers achieving their National Board Certification (NBC) and teachers holding an Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) that teach in comprehensive needs schools.
However, the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2015 (BRFA) eliminated this stipend program, effective fiscal year 2017. To reach that effective date, any educator who achieves their NBC or APC in or after the fiscal year of 2014 would not be eligible for a stipend.
Dana Levitt, a kindergarten teacher at Riderwood Elementary School, received her certificates before fiscal year 2014 and her first stipend in 2015, shortly before the stipend program was cut.
“No one told us about this,” Levitt said. “We had to find out through the local news.”
According to BRFA of 2015, stipends and bonuses were given to eligible classroom teachers, those holding an NBC or APC, in order to attract and retain quality teachers in Maryland public schools.
Teachers and other non-administrative school-based employees in schools identified as having comprehensive needs and who hold an NBC would receive a stipend from the Maryland State Department of Education up to $2,000.
BCPS would match the amount granted by the MSDE. Those in non-comprehensive need schools would receive a stipend up to $1,000. Teachers in comprehensive need schools with an APC would receive $1,500.
Keller earned an NBC in November 2014 and teaches at Hereford High School, a non-comprehensive needs school. He received a $2,000 stipend at the end of last school year for the first and only time.
“We write curriculum, mentor [students], work with teachers at other schools, so to differentiate income based on which building you teach in seems arbitrary to us,” Keller said.
The stipend payments are based on school performance from previous years. To be eligible, an educator must have taught the entire year while holding their certification. According to Keller, applying for certification is a “rigorous process.”
“This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I’m trying to earn my doctorate,” said J. Heather Buchman, a kindergarten teacher at Riderwood Elementary School.
Buchman, who earned her master’s from Towson University and is earning her doctorate from the Notre Dame University of Maryland, urged the board to “think about that stipend. It will impact my ability to take a summer course.”
In addition to reinstating the stipends, Keller also asked the board to find “pathways to promote the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in Baltimore County.”
“Even if BCPS corrects this inequity at the county level, there must be many other NBCTs throughout Maryland who achieved NBC in fiscal year 2014 and 2015 who are still going to be deprived of their stipends this year,” Keller said.
The elimination of the stipend program does, in fact, affect public school systems and teachers across the state. The BRFA of 2015 stated that the Maryland State Department of Education should work to propose a restructure of teacher incentives.
3 Comments
Thank you, Mr. Swain, for speaking to us after the Board meeting. I am pleased to share with you that the BCPS Board of Education has demonstrated their support for National Board Certification by reinstating our stipends. We, the “unlucky 13”, will have to find a new moniker! I am proud to work in a system that so quickly works to redress injustices.
I would like to commend the BCPS Board of Education, and other involved BCPS administrators, for acting so quickly to address this inequity. It’s great to be part of a school system that is so supportive and responsive to the concerns and needs of its staff, students, and community.
Mr. Swain, thank you for your support of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Finding ways to promote the National Board at the state, county, and school level is one critical pathway for continuing to develop quality, reflective teachers who have meaningful impacts on student learning.
Does this apply to teachers with Advanced Professional Ceritificates earned in 2015 as well? Or are the stipends only for NBC teachers?
Thanks