By Janine Davis Record Staff Writer After months of negotiating, Warren County R-III teachers and administrators have reached an agreement on a salary plan and a new model for teacher compensation. Teachers in the district will see salaries increase an average of $2,500 for the 2014-2015 school year under the new plan. Under the agreement, which was unanimously approved during last week’s R-III school board meeting, each teacher will be moved up one salary “step” level, with an increase of $1,000 added to the salary base to reach at least $2,000 for the year. The increase is designed to compensate teachers more equitably with the hope of rewarding and retaining more highly qualified staff. “Basically, everybody will get at least a $2,000 raise,” said Bill Brown, representative for the Warren County National Education Association (WNEA) teachers union. Brown was joined by Debbie Toebben, representing the district’s second teachers union, Warren County MSTA-CTA, in addressing the board with its negotiated compensation proposal. While every teacher will get at least a $2,000 raise, “super steps” will allow some teachers to receive up to a $4,000 raise, Brown said. Funds to accommodate the increases will come from expected increases in state foundation formula funding and from increased funding tied to the school’s significant gains in ADA (Average Daily Attendance), said R-III Superintendent Dr. Jim Chandler. “We started this process in September, and since then, have gone through many different scenarios to see where we’d come out with funding,” Chandler told the board. “Our process was a team effort.” Historically R-III’s complex teachers’ salary schedule has equated a teacher’s salary level or “step” with years of experience, factoring in advanced education. During the previous administration, this alignment changed, much to many teachers’ dislike according to school officials. Brown said he and fellow union representatives originally came to the negotiating table with the intent of putting something close to the previous step system back in place. “We went in thinking we wanted to fix the steps, but just decided it’s something that’s nearly unresolvable without a whole lot of money,” Brown told the board. “We discussed options, and Dr. Chandler came up with this solution of raising the base and moving everyone up. It’s not the perfect solution for us, but it’s a very viable solution that’s equitable for all our staff members.” The plan also ends salary freezes that have been in place for several years for some masters-level teachers and positions at certain other levels.One issue with the current system has been the hiring of teachers from other districts at a higher salary step level. “If you’ve got five years here, and you’re on Step 2, and somebody comes in from another district with five years and they’re at Step 5, it’s understandably upsetting,” Brown said. “But the change in our step system might have been a $5,000 increase for someone in the middle of the schedule and maybe only a $700 raise for someone at the end of the schedule who’s getting ready to retire.” Both unions and the district each sent out a survey to teachers with much the same line of questioning about preferences for across-the-board increases versus trying to fix the system through steps. Chandler told board members, “We both asked, ‘What’s more important — the money or the steps?’ and more than 75 percent said the money is more important.” Toebben said the decision to scrap the plan to fix the previous system involved many discussions with teachers, as well as administrators. “There were a lot of conversations going on in the buildings with teachers asking us to explain the approach to them,” Toebben noted. “We’re not making everyone happy — we know that — but teachers understand there are (district) money factors at work in taking this direction. Toebben told board members that once the proposal was explained there was mostly positive feedback from union members. “They understand we need to get this done, move forward and work on trying to add more every year to our base within the district’s ability.” Union representatives looked at every individual teacher’s salary situation in deciding what was in the best interest of each, said Toebben. “People still don’t like that other teachers can get hired in and make more than they do with the same amount of years, but do like getting a substantial raise, and most people are happy with that,” said Toebben. Both Brown and Toebben commended Chandler and Financial Director Tony Chance for being candid and thorough when they pushed back about why various scenarios would not be financial workable. The proposal drew some skepticism from board President Teresa Scott, who in the end, cast her vote in favor of adoption. “I still have concerns that we have someone who’s been here six years and is on Step 3,” said Scott. “If you hire someone in who has six years of experience somewhere else, and they’re going to be making $3,000-$5,000 more than the person whose experience is here, are we saying that the value of the experience here is not as great as the value of the experience of someone from the outside? Truly that’s my concern with this.” Chandler responded that those same people are going to get $5,000 more in a three-year time period under the new system. The board also approved an increase in classified non-teaching staff that amounts to an average 3-percent jump per employee.
Agreement reached on salary increase in R-III
