Board looks to increase teacher pay over time

A compensation package to include an employee bonus in the short term and an increase in starting teacher pay over a couple of years is being put together for Little Rock School Board consideration in April, Superintendent Mike Poore said Thursday.

The goal is to provide a $12,000 salary increase, from the current $36,000 to $48,000, for a beginning teacher within two years, Poore told the School Board at an agenda-setting meeting.

The Little Rock School District’s intent would be to put the 21,000-student district among the top five districts in the state in terms of starting salary. If enacted now, the $48,000 salary would put the Little Rock district at the top of the state’s districts, tied with the Springdale School District, he said.

Such a compensation package would require “right-sizing” and “belt-tightening” to staff schools at appropriate levels, the superintendent said.

That doesn’t mean there would be employee layoffs or a reduction-in-force, he said, but he said it could mean not filling some vacancies that occur as the result of resignations and retirements. About 125 employees have left during the school year, he said, and more will leave at the end of the year. The district has more than 3,000 employees, at least half of whom are state-licensed educators.

As for bonuses, Poore said the administration is evaluating the recommendation of a compensation committee of teachers and administrators for a “pandemic bonus” this year for all employees. The amounts being considered range from a possible $500 to $2,500, subject to budgetary constraints.

The compensation committee has also proposed increasing coaching and academic stipends.