Lawmakers passed an amended version of a bill allowing school districts to recruit teachers by providing certain financial incentives. Wade Pogany is the Executive Director of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota. He says Senate Bill 132 allows school boards to pay signing bonuses, moving expenses, or tuition reimbursements to help attract new teachers. The original language said that these payments may not be negotiated with the teacher’s designated collective bargaining representative.
“The reason we brought the bill was that by current Department of Labor actions, there was a case in Todd County, that said in order to do the things that we’re asking to do you have to negotiate them,” Pogany says. “And one of my arguments was that in the process of trying to recruit a teacher, and Representative you were on the school board, you know, that the beginning of the year, you’re trying to find that teacher, you need to make an offer to that teacher, we need the flexibility in order to do that.”
The bill was amended to say that a school district may, but is not required to negotiate the incentives. It passed the House Education Committee with a vote of eleven to three.