Personnel Salaries in District Budgets

Week 4 Part 4 Comment

When discussing salaries with one of our districts administrator we talked about the truth behind a pay raises. The way my district does it in based off of a “Mid-Point”. So the pay raise will be more beneficial for those with few years than those with many years of service. It is not a true 4% pay raise based off of your current salary. That is what my district did this school year. The board approved a 4% pay increase in hopes to close the gap in regards to surrounding school districts’ salaries. We have been way behind them for a number of years. So the board felt that this would help bring in more qualified teachers and help keep the ones that we already have. The district was able to do this without raising taxes which was a good thing but it did very little in regards to closing the salary gap. I think if you are going to give a raise it should be done straight across the board. The 4 or 5 % should be based off of your current salary not a mid-point. This shows district loyalty to those who have been loyal to the district for their tenure. The problem lies in the zero year pay scale. To me, this districts sales pitch. The price has to be right in order to bring in highly qualified people. If the numbers are not there they will take their services elsewhere.