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Empowerment Zone And Teachers' Union Disagree Over Proposed Stipend

WVPE News Stock Photos

The South Bend Empowerment Zone shared some future plans for its schools and teachers at a meeting Thursday. One plan that would remove some teachers from the union was met with opposition.

The Empowerment Zone is a fairly new operation that’s meant to improve five struggling South Bend schools.

One goal the Empowerment Zone shared sparked some questions from current members of the local teachers’ union.

The plan is to give teachers at Navarre middle school and Coquillard elementary school a $10,000 stipend in addition to their normal salary.

Sam Centellas, SBEZ Board Chairman, said the stipend will help attract the best teachers and ultimately improve those schools.

“The best teachers are going to help us have the best students. We wanted to focus our resources in those areas to try and make sure we had the most talented, dedicated, and focused team in those buildings to impact student outcomes in the way we need.”

Some opponents of the stipend said it would be unfair and would go against the local teachers’ union.

The stipend would mean teachers at those two schools are out of the union.

Centellas said the teachers would still be paid the same base rate and given the same benefits.