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Not everyone may be happy, but at least it’s done.
Mountain Home Public Schools Board officially signed off on an amended salary schedule proposal from the district’s Personnel Policy Committee (PPC) Wednesday evening during a special session.
The newly approved schedule will see the district implement Arkansas’s LEARNS ACT, while also giving a boost in pay to more experienced teachers. The approval comes after the school board split on the PPC’s first proposal and a proposal by outgoing Superintendent Jake Long during a previous special session on May 11.
In addition to the new teacher salary schedule, the school board also unanimously approved a proposal by the Classified Personnel Policy Committee (CPPC) to bump pay for other paraprofessionals within the district. Those individuals working in maintenance, food service, transportation and technology can expect a 1% raise to start. Some schedules, such as nursing, will receive a 5-15% bump in pay.
Both Steve Mendleski, chairman for the CPPC, and the school board agreed that more work needed to be done to increase pay for the districts non-teachers but noted that the 1% raise was going to have to do in the meantime. Both parties are expected to continue to work to find ways to increase the classified pay schedule going forward.
“Thank you for putting in the work,” said Jason Schmeski of the Mountain Home School Board.
Tensions between teachers and school district officials have been high over the past few months. Between the stress of pushing for a new millage increase that failed, and the scandals that have come out of this school election cycle have had emotions running high.
The biggest scandal involving teacher pay came from the exposure of the school board’s secret text group that was run by Long. In that group, text messages revealed that Long and some of the school board members had already made a decision on teacher’s salaries and the implementation of the LEARNS Act, even as the PPC was tasked by district officials to come up with a proposal to bring before the board.
In addition to that scandal, the LEARNS Act itself was a major point of contention for some of the district’s teachers, with many experienced teachers feeling snubbed by the massive pay increase that junior teachers will be receiving thanks to the recently passed bill.
Under the LEARNS Act, junior teachers in Arkansas can expect to see their base pay skyrocket to a minimum of $50,000 a year. In some rural school districts in Arkansas, that $50,000 figure wasn’t seen by some teachers until they had nearly 20 years of service, and thousands of dollars invested into advanced degrees beneath their belt.
In his May 11 pitch to the school board, PPC Chairman Madison Ingle presented a proposal that the district’s teachers could swallow, even if they didn’t like it. That proposal would have seen teachers earning above $48,000 to receive a $2,000 increase. Teachers falling under Steps four through 14 would also have seen modest pay increases based on their level of education. Steps 15 through 19 would have continued to see decent pay increases for the districts with more experienced teachers. Under the plan, more experienced teachers would have been able to top out at $65,140 if they had a master’s degree and 45 hours of additional education.
Teachers in Steps one through four would be capped at $50,000 to comply with the LEARNS Act.
Yet that plan was pushed to the wayside, following a second proposal by Long. Long’s plan, if officially adopted, would have locked in the LEARNS Act pay raise of $50,000 for much longer, requiring the district’s teachers to have to wait even longer to begin to receive a pay raise for their years of experience. Under that plan, a teacher with a master’s degree and 45 additional hours of education would only receive a raise of $141 when reaching Step 4.
It would have taken 27 years of service to the district for that same highly educated teacher to top out at $65,035 under Long’s proposal.
With the exception of board members Barbara Horton and Bill Wehmeyer, the school board voted to send Long’s proposal to the PPC for review.
What passed
Thankfully, the PPC was able to go back to the drawing board and amend their proposal after state officials lowered the cost of insurance for the school district, freeing up additional money to invest in salary schedules.
In a unanimous vote, the school board voted to give teachers more money than was originally asked for during their original pitch, with some money left over to go towards a building fund.
Altogether, the district is expected to receive $2,870,120, including $1.5 million from the state, to implement the LEARNS Act. Total salary increases, including teacher salaries and classified salaries, are expected to cost $2.184 million.
The list of salary schedules for 2023-24 can be found below.
