Paris City Schools board approves $10K stipend for certified high school math teachers

PARIS, Ky. (WKYT) - The Paris City School District is finding creative ways to attract more teachers.

Thursday night, the school board voted to add $10,000 stipends to two certified high school math teaching positions.

Superintendent Stephen McCauley said the teacher shortage is making it hard to fill positions, and STEM teachers are the hardest to find.

“Right now, we’ve had that posted for a month and haven’t had any applicants, so it just goes to show where that shortage is across the country and locally,” Paris City Schools Superintendent Stephen McCauley said.

But the $10,000 stipends seem to be helping. McCauley said shortly after the announcement he received a few applications. His goal is to fill Paris High School’s math teacher positions before school starts.

“You’re talking anywhere from Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, all the way up to Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Trig,” McCauley said.

He wishes he could pay all teachers higher salaries, but noted the lack of state funding has made it difficult.

“If we could get our salaries up to even some bigger districts like Fayette County, we would be more competitive. But in the end, there’s just not as many teachers as there once were and this shortage is going to impact us until our society as a whole sees the drastic need for increased funding,” McCauley said.

The superintendent said to become a teacher, all you need is a college degree. He said there are several pathways you can take to become certified to teach.

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