(WISH-TV’s Jasmine Minor contributed to this story)
INDIANAPOLIS–Some students at Pike Township Schools are on remote learning Wednesday because of staff absences, according to social media posts from the district and the district superintendent.
Pike High School, the freshman campus, and Pike Preparatory Academy are on remote learning. Elementary and middle school students are attending classes in-person.
Due to a lack of bus drivers on Tuesday, all students were on remote learning.
The district is currently hiring drivers, according to a post on the district’s website.
There is also an online petition calling for the immediate removal of MSD superintendent Dr. Flora Reichanadter.
Pike High School teacher Bill Rawls tells our newsgathering partners at WISH-TV that his students are worn out from having to go back and forth between online and in-person learning due to a lack of teachers or bus drivers who are fighting the district’s leaders for pay raises.
“It’s absolutely destroying the morale of the teachers. There are numerous teachers, including myself, that are thinking about leaving. I’m going to retire, I think, at the end of the year,” Rawls said.
He says, in the district’s education fund, there’s expected to be a nearly $5 million surplus. In the operation fund, it shows a nearly $7 million surplus. Rawls says the teachers’ association is asking for about $3 million, which equals a nearly 7% pay raise.
WISH-TV found that in the 2019-2020 school year, Reichanadter received a 9% pay raise. Rawls, teachers, say they are outraged by her raise combined with the fact that the district can’t pay the staff more money.
