Cape School Board members discuss raising base salaries at retreat

Members of the Cape Girardeau School Board discussed the revision of the current teacher salary schedule and improving communications with parents at a retreat and work session Thursday.

The board first discussed revisions to the salary schedule at July's retreat but were unable to complete the talk. Thursday did not yield many decisions, either. Members said they wanted to increase teachers' base salary to be more competitive with other districts.

Misty Clifton, chief financial officer for the district, said the base salary of $29,463 ranked 15th out of 16 area school districts with similar enrollment.

As to how to raise the base, the discussion centered on eliminating "frozen steps," in which teachers, despite gaining experience during their first four years of teaching, do not "step" up the pay schedule and receive a raise until their fifth year.

Board member Don Carr said teachers should not only consider salary in their compensation but the additional $6,800 the district pays annually toward their health insurance.

"We pay more in health insurance. When you are a beginning teacher, you don't always look at that," he said.

Superintendent Jim Welker told board members to think about the salary schedule and make recommendations to the district's salary and welfare committee.

Members also addressed the need for better communication with parents about meetings, new policies and so on. Some of the possible solutions to this included text alerts, e-mails, phone calls and parent meetings off school property.

During the retreat, the board also discussed internal monitoring of progress made toward the comprehensive school improvement plan.

David Lineberry, associate executive director of education and training for the Missouri School Boards' Association, made a presentation to members regarding performance-based superintendent evaluation. The board evaluated Welker last year using those standards and will do so again this year. Much of the evaluation is connected to the achievement of goals in the improvement plan.

Welker said the retreat gives the board the chance to meet and talk openly about a variety of issues.

"We identified a need several months ago to pull the board together just to have some more informal discussions around different goals that we have for the district," he said. "What we have done is we've taken four broad areas to focus on. We talked about human resources and funding and budget last month. This month we're looking at communications and the comprehensive school improvement plan. Hopefully then that discussion can help us focus throughout the coming school year how we're going to focus on those things."

cbartholomew@semissourian.com

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