Looking for stipend data

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
#1

I’m looking for some data about how much schools pay their robotics coaches so I can ask for a stipend for our coaches. If you’re comfortable giving me a range, along with the grade and number of students and teams you coach, it would be much appreciated. If you’d rather PM me, I will take all identifying information off your data and repost here. Also please include an example or 2 the stipends at your school for athletics coaches for comparison.

Here’s one I’m making up:
Teacher A coaches 4 middle school teams with 4 students per team. He has 1 meeting per week for 2 hours. He gets $250 per semester. The soccer coach at his school receives a $500 per semester stipend.

Students, PLEASE DON"T SHARE YOUR TEACHER’S INFO WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION!

Thank you for your info. I feel rude for asking, but I’m not sure how to figure this out another way.

#2

I am all for teachers earning stipends for leading robotics. However, I think it’s difficult to really assess what a fair stipend is. Some schools expect teachers to lead clubs as a part of their teaching contracts or evaluation methods. Other schools view it on par with sports teams and pay accordingly. Some mentors earn their pay through positive exposure for the school or revenue from hosting events. Other programs operate in the red at schools with tight budgets.

That being said, it’s all about what it’s worth to the mentor and school. I know I would want to do robotics regardless of my stipend, but what the school pays me encourages me to give extra time and maintain a higher level of program. It also makes it easier to convince my wife to go along with Saturday tournaments or a team lock-in.

I won’t share my stipend, because like I said it really depends on the teacher/school. If they don’t think it’s worth their time, a teacher shouldn’t do it. However, I will say that a lack of stipend at my last school made it easier to leave for another school.

#3

Some school districts post their pay schedules, including a coaching appendix. You can look at school districts near you to determine if robotics shows up in their published salary material.

#4

There are no teachers involved in mentoring our team, only three engineers who are there on a completely volunteer basis.

#5

Yep we’re free.

#6

We’re a community team…16 IQ bots, 4 VRC bots, 1 VEX-U box, all volunteer.

#7

In my district we started getting a stipend based on our position on the salary schedule at a factor of 0.02 in our last contract.

#8

Thanks you all! I cannot imagine all of the volunteer mentor hours that go into each team, each region, each state, each country. Our kids are resource rich!

#9