Understanding Teachers' Salaries

We monitor other districts’ salary schedules regularly and make necessary modifications to our salary schedules to remain competitive.  Based on the State budget deficit and funding reductions for public education over the 2011 biennium, an early recommendation in our budget review process last year involved freezing salaries in an effort to preserve as many jobs as possible.

The 2011-12 budget froze salaries and the original plan for 2012-13 was to do the same.  Freezing salaries meant that we had to lower our beginning teacher starting salary and reduce our hire in schedule to avoid a situation where a new teacher would have a salary greater than an existing teacher with the same or greater years of experience (assuming appropriate performance evaluations).  The thought was that this strategy best supported the district’s mission, values, focus, and goals given the difficult financial circumstances. 

The lower than projected loss of state funding in the first year of the biennium and the higher than projected enrollment provides a combination of increased one time funds and increased recurring funds.  Based on feedback from our Budget Review Team and discussions with staff and the Board, the 2012-13 budget includes using part of the additional one time and recurring funds for increased staff compensation. 

We experienced very low teacher turnover for 2012-13; however there was some hiring and we received thousands of applications for the 250 or so open teaching positions for the current year.  Beginning teachers represent a large percentage of available teacher candidates.  The Human Resources Department aggressively seeks top teachers, including beginning teachers, by offering open contracts as early in the hiring process as possible.  An open contract guarantees the teacher a position within the District although the school assignment will be determined later.  This practice allows the district to retain the most qualified candidates and balance the average experience for staff. 

We modified our teacher compensation schedule eleven years ago, moving away from a step schedule for our veteran teachers.  These teachers receive compensation increases as approved by the Board of Trustees.  We developed a hiring schedule for teachers joining the district.  This compensation structure allows us to provide higher compensation to teachers who have been with the district versus those newly hired.

We are recommending that the 2012-13 hiring schedule for teachers joining the district be used for 2013-14.  This will require an increase in compensation for some teachers to ensure that it does not create a situation where a new teacher would have a salary greater than an existing teacher with the same or greater years of experience (assuming appropriate performance evaluations). 

Within the current legislative budgeting environment, a 5% increase in teacher salaries is not possible.  It would require an offset in operating costs that cannot be attained in the current financial environment.