Teachers start in NW Arkansas

Area’s 4 largest districts welcome hundreds of new hires

Northwest Arkansas’ largest school districts welcomed more than 500 teachers to their campuses this month, from recent graduates to experienced veterans.

The school year begins today for Bentonville, Fayetteville and Springdale schools and Wednesday for most Rogers schools. The school year started for Eastside Elementary School in Rogers last month.

Districts do most of their hiring from March through August, but Bentonville started early with two new campuses opening this week: Osage Creek Elementary School and Creekside Middle School. Seventeen of the more than 140 teachers hired this year are going to newly opened schools, said Superintendent Debbie Jones.

“Bentonville Schools grew by over 500 students last school year,” said Jeff Wasem, Creekside principal.

Jennifer Beasley, director of teacher education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said the university graduated 258 teacher candidates earlier this year, including 109 with master’s degrees in teaching who sought positions for the 2017-18 school year. She estimated about 70 percent of teacher graduates each year stay in Northwest Arkansas.

“I’m always waiting by the phone in case a district wants a recommendation for one of our students,” she said.

New teachers have a short time to get their classrooms ready by August, which can be very stressful, she said.

The Bentonville district’s hiring for all schools wound down in the first week of August, Jones said. She finished a final interview that week for an assistant principal at Bright Field Middle School. The candidate had met with the principal of the school three times before the final interview.

“We do a pretty thorough job,” Jones said. “We want them to be successful. We want this to be the right place for them. It’s all about putting the right people in the right seat on the right bus.”

The four large Northwest Arkansas districts had the highest beginning teacher salaries for 2016-17 with Springdale paying the most, followed by Rogers, Bentonville and Fayetteville. Boards in three of the four large districts have discussed proposals for raising teacher pay. Raises are in addition to annual “step” increases, which award more money based on experience and education.

The Springdale School Board raised teacher pay in June by $250, increasing salaries to $47,266 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree. Teachers are vital, and paying teachers well is a priority, said Kelly Hayes, comptroller for the district.

Fayetteville followed in July, with a $3,000 increase to its teacher salary schedule. Fayetteville’s beginning teachers with bachelor’s degrees will earn $45,310 annually this year.

The Bentonville School Board this month heard administrators’ plans to propose between a 1 percent and a 3.5 percent pay raise for teachers this fall. A 1 percent raise would take the beginning teacher salary to $45,155, while a 3.5 percent boost would result in a beginning teacher salary of $46,273.

A teacher in Rogers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience earns an annual salary of $44,750.