Cape school board approves 2013-2014 salary schedules

The Cape Girardeau School Board on Thursday approved a new salary schedule for the upcoming school year in an ongoing effort to bring teacher pay in line with other districts.

The district has been transitioning between two salary schedules since 2009. Frozen steps and large gaps between the highest and lowest salaries were unfavorable aspects of the old schedule.

"This was the solution," superintendent James Welker said. "It just takes several years to get it fixed."

A teacher's base salary is $31,500; Welker said the goal is to reach a base of $35,000 in the next three to four years. The Community Teachers Association approved new schedule, and negotiated to bring the increase to the base of the new teacher schedule to about $1,500. That portion is about a 3 percent increase, and Welker said the percentage was first chosen for the teacher salary schedule and applied to the rest of the schedules. The percentage would fluctuate with each step. Neil Glass, assistant superintendent for administrative services, said halfway down the steps is where the 3 percent is applied. The percentage ranges because of the different monetary figures at every step.

"We tried to hit the middle at about 3 percent and adjust the schedule that way to be fair as we possibly can," Welker said. He said it is an approximate percentage, because it depends on where an individual's pay is on the salary schedule.

Board member Jeff Glenn asked for the range of the percentages for the teacher salary schedule. Glass said this would be between 4.5 percent and 2.5 percent.

"The process is to phase everyone off the old schedule to the new," Welker said, "to keep increasing the base of the new schedule each year until all the teachers are moved over."

Teachers will be moved only if it brings an increase to their pay. About 50 teachers will be moved to the new schedule this year, with a total of 250 transitioned.

About 150 remain on the old schedule. These teachers receive the step, which is about $750.

"If they make more by moving to the new schedule than with a step with the old one, then they'll move," Welker said. "We're forcing them to make more money."

Welker said the district uses feedback from Missouri School Boards' Association's surveys to compare with similar districts. Districts such as Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and Farmington, Mo., contain bases that are significantly above Cape Girardeau's.

"The teachers schedule, we've got to get that base up," Welker said.

He's confident that as the new schedule is implemented, Cape Girardeau will catch up with Jackson, which has a base of about $32,600, he said.

Cape Girardeau School Board President Tony Smee pointed out that Jackson has a larger student body than Cape Girardeau and fewer teachers.

"If you're looking at a pot of money and you divide it up, and you're looking to compare the number of students against number of staff, you've got a pie that we have to share with more people," he said. "But we're trying."

All the schedules reflect the 3-percent-at-the-middle-step approach except for the nutrition schedule. It was approved to be set at $9 from $7.75 to stay competitive.

Glass said when there is a particular schedule with an issue such as this, it needs to be dealt with singularly to see whether it needs to be adjusted.

In other action, the school board approved the negotiation of a contract with US Bank to continue as the district's financial depository for three years, with an option to renew for another two years.

botto@semissourian.com

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark, Cape Girardeau, Mo.