This school district is located in Manitowoc County. By a strong majority, the residents of this county are strong Trump supporters, and spent 2012-2018 Standing With Walker. Not surprisingly, public education in this county suffers from a lack of support from many county residents who are strong MAGA supporters.
Since the MAGA Republican Dictatorship that rules Wisconsin enacted Act 10 in 2011, teachers in every school district in this county have suffered significant salary and benefit cuts imposed by MAGA-controlled school boards.
Average teacher pay in this county ranges from $53,585 to 64,323. The Manitowoc school district average teacher salary was the highest in this county at $64,343. The increase in average teacher salary since 2011 was 15.8%, which was below the inflation rate.
In spring 2022, the Manitowoc school board was targeted for takeover by a MAGA Republican candidate slate. Running on a platform that demonized teachers for making kids wear masks and closing schools during the Covid epidemic, the spring school board elections were extremely divisive and degraded support for public schools. The 3 MAGA candidates who relentlessly criticized teachers won election to the School Board in a landslide.
Since 2022, there has been an exodus of veteran teachers out of the Manitowoc school district. So many teachers left immediately following the MAGA school board takeover that the Manitowoc school district had to offer $5000 hiring bonuses in August 2022 to fully staff the schools.
Under firm control of a majority MAGA school board, the Manitowoc school district remains a frequent flier on WECAN, seemingly looking for replacement teachers throughout the year.
The MAGA controlled Manitowoc school board prioritized keeping the Superintendent VERY HAPPY by increasing Superintendent pay by 53% since July 2011, which was over THREE times the increase in average teacher salaries.
With everything going on in the Manitowoc school district, we rate the career potential as a DEAD END job.
March 2024 Update: To better understand that EXTREME political divisions on the Manitowoc School Board that you will endure if you accept a teaching position in this district, here is an article comparing the views of 4 candidates running for 2 School Board positions. Stacy Soeldner is allied with the extreme right wing of the school board and is heavily favored to win re-election in this majority MAGA Republican community. Note that one candidate shares that in the last 2 years, 208 teachers have quit or retired from the Manitowoc Public School District-which is why WECAN is filled with job postings from this district.
https://www.htrnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/03/26/manitow...
This is one example of how MAGA Republican community members in the Manitowoc school district attack school board candidates that they do not like:
Inside Story From 2022:
Further Information We Feel Prospective Teachers Should Know Before Accepting a Teaching Position in the Manitowoc Public Schools
Any teacher considering accepting employment in the Manitowoc school district should educate themselves on the political climate inside the Manitowoc Public school district. We feel that the Manitowoc community is an extremely divided community over the management of the school district. The extreme division of the community has resulted in a cascade of hatred from Pro-Trump right wingers directed towards all associated with the Manitowoc schools, especially the Superintendent, the School Board, and the teachers over policies requiring students to wear masks during the depths of the Covid pandemic, and accusations that Critical Race Theory was being taught across the Manitowoc schools' curriculum.
On April 5, 2022, voters elected a slate of extremely conservative school board candidates who have promised to completely reverse the direction of the Manitowoc schools. Like most of the past 2 years, the election was extremely divisive in the community, with supporters of the incumbent school board members receiving written threats of physical harm and violence if they didn't remove campaign signs from their yards. In this heavily Republican voting district, voters elected one candidate who proudly proclaimed his participation in the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington DC to overturn the 2020 election.