SMALL SCHOOLS OFFER BIG SALARIES TO ATTRACT TEACHERS

Some of Southeast Missouri's smaller school districts offer big starting salaries to attract teachers.

School districts in Charleston, Hayti and Scott City all have base salaries for beginning teachers thousands of dollars higher than the larger districts of Jackson or Cape Girardeau.

Jackson, which has had to hire a number of new teachers annually to keep up with its five-year enrollment gains, offers a starting salary of $22,600.

Cape Girardeau, which has suffered numerous financial difficulties from a salary freeze last year, has a base salary of $21,005.

Scott City Superintendent Roger Tatum said his salary schedule includes a base salary of $24,250 to entice first-year teachers to begin their careers in Scott City.

The base salary is a combination of "efficiency and the revenue resources we have," he said.

Despite the big starting salary, Tatum said his district is more inviting to veteran teachers because there is little compression in the salary schedule. Compression occurs when there is little difference between the base and top salaries for teachers.

In the past, school districts often loaded the front end of a salary schedule with higher salaries but failed to compensate more experienced teachers similarly, Tatum said. The resulting compression produced salary schedules where the salary ranges only several thousand between the base and top-end of the schedule.

"It's not rewarding the teachers enough for their experience or for going back and getting their other graduate hours," Tatum said. "As far as our salaries are concerned, last year we were at $24,000, and we intentionally did not increase our base very much because we felt we were competitive and needed to work on our other end."

Even tiny Leopold, a district with fewer than 300 students, has a higher starting salary than many larger school districts. The district's base salary of $21,200 allows it to compete with most other area schools for beginning teachers.

However, that competitive edge quickly dwindles because the salary schedule doesn't pay veteran teachers as well, comparatively.

"Our starting salaries are about as good as any school's," said Robert Turner, Leopold's superintendent. "The advantage Cape and Jackson have and where they'll be able to pull our more experienced teachers is their pay schedule is a little bit better than ours."

Most teachers wind up leaving Leopold schools after several years to go to districts with longer and broader salary schedules, Turner said. For example, a teacher who has reached Leopold's top salary of $31,000 could make up to $10,000 more in another district.

However, Turner said salaries are not the only factor in teacher retention.

"I think most teachers teach where they do, not as much for salaries, but for other reasons," he said. "As you look for people to stay working where they are, salary is not the most important thing for most everybody."

Terry Rowe, Charleston schools superintendent, said benefits are equally important to salaries for veteran teachers. Charleston, which has a base salary of $24,000, has a broad schedule that includes some 12 teachers who make the top salary of $40,800.

There's also another plus that veteran teachers appreciate, he said.

"Your first-year teachers feel they'll live forever, and insurance won't mean much to them as it would to a veteran teacher who has a family," said Rowe. "We offer a good salary schedule and a full benefit package, where a lot of districts have caps they put on their insurance."

Teachers are attracted to districts that have demonstrated a commitment to smaller class sizes and student achievement, Rowe said. Those commitments are met by hiring more teachers and offering competitive salaries throughout the salary schedule, which can be very expensive for a small district.

Rowe said his district's larger salaries were the result of cautious spending and good revenue, and grants also are sought whenever possible to supplement budgeted items.

"We buy what is necessary to provide kids with the best possible education we can, but we don't go overboard," he said. "We rely on state and federal grants to do some things and we rely on local monies to pay salaries."

Limitations on housing or social entertainment can cause smaller districts in the area to lose out to Cape Girardeau and Jackson, which offer more choices and better proximity to higher education classes and entertainment.

In the end, school administrators said offering competitive salaries, benefit packages and class sizes are only part of what it takes to retain good teachers.

Rowe said, "What I like to do is try to encourage our own students who are graduating from school to go into education and come back home. Other than that, it's just very active recruiting.

"Once we get them," he said, "we don't like to let them go. Once we get them, they usually don't want to leave. But you've got to get them here first."