Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
BOURBON – Triton School Board on Monday approved the acknowledgement of two Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) notices the school corporation received.
Superintendent Jeremy Riffle said Indiana law requires school corporations to spend at least 65% of state tuition support on teacher compensation for fiscal year 2026. Triton Schools spent 63.49% on teacher compensation.
He said as a small corporation, retirements have a big effect on certified salary totals. When experienced teachers retire, they are typically replaced with teachers who have fewer years of experience and earn less, which lowers the overall salary spending even as individual teachers receive raises.
As required by law, Riffle said the board needed to acknowledge the shortfall during the board meeting and the notice will be posted in the minutes of the meeting and on the school corporation website in those minutes within 30 days.
Riffle said Triton also needed to acknowledge the IDOE notice Triton spent $3,291,568 on teacher salaries, which is less than the previous year. He said Triton was short approximately $152,000 in paying teachers than the previous year. He said the rational comes down to retirements and replacements.
He said every year, the salaries to teachers and the amount overall the school corporation is giving to teachers is supposed to grow “and that’s not possible when you think about replacing veteran teachers.” He also noted the school corporation is down 30 students as far as student count.
Board member Steve Stichter wanted to make sure the board just had to acknowledge the notices and there would not be any penalties for the school corporation. Riffle said there would not be any penalties for Triton. Business Manager Tom McFarland said the 65% is a threshold, but it’s really a goal.
Riffle explained about two years ago, the threshold was set at 62% for teacher salaries “and we weren’t quite there.” McFarland said the first threshold the state legislature required was school corporations had to pay teachers at least $40,000 and it increased from there.
McFarland said he is expecting to hit the 65% threshold this year.
In other business, the board:
• Approved the resignation of Sarah Heinlein as an elementary instructional assistant, JD Feaster as the varsity girls basketball coach and Caleb Oetjen as boys junior varsity basketball coach.
• Approved the hiring of Joel Grindle as the boys junior varsity boys basketball coach, Ashley Davis as the seventh-grade girls basketball coach, MaKenna Belin as a show choir and theater volunteer, Jason Thompson as a junior high wrestling supervisor, Andy Barker as a varsity boys basketball supervisor, Megan Hammand as a varsity girls basketball supervisor and Scott and Amanda Baily as junior high boys basketball supervisors.
• Heard there will be a two-hour delay Thursday.
