Unions grateful but push for all SCS teachers to receive proposed raises
Teacher union leaders said they are grateful Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson’s budget includes money for teacher raises, but resist the idea that the money be distributed based on merit.
Hopson’s proposal, delivered to the school board this week as part of a $945.2 million budget, includes nearly $11 million to raise teachers’ salaries. But only those who receive at least a 3 out of 5 on their annual evaluations would receive the money.
Hopson noted that’s at least 90 percent of the district’s teachers, but the unions, which have pushed back on merit-based raises previously, aren’t satisfied.
“We believe that all educators should receive that increase,” United Education Association of Shelby County President Tikeila Rucker said.
If the district wants to reward teachers for high performance, she said, they should do it on top of a system that pays increases for years of service. The evaluation system is subjective, she added, and therefore raises based on its results aren’t fair.
Memphis Shelby County Education Association Executive Director Keith Williams called the evaluations “flawed,” and said the district should raise salaries through a step increase system that was abandoned after the merger with Memphis City Schools in 2013.
“Our feedback was, level everybody up to where they should be before you even attempt this merit-based pay,” he said.
Williams spoke out last year against an identical proposal from Hopson.
The 2016-17 budget included $13 million for all teachers who received a 3 out of 5 or better on evaluations to earn a 3 percent raise. But evaluation data from the Tennessee Department of Education was so delayed due to testing issues last school year, the district elected to give all teachers the raise.
After that announcement in November, Williams said the raises would increase retention and recruiting efforts in the district because teachers would feel “valued.”
Rucker said the teachers she represents are grateful Hopson’s budget includes money for teacher raises.
“We believe that that will have a huge impact on the morale of teachers across the district,” she said.
Gov. Bill Haslam’s budget for the state includes teacher pay increases, but districts are only required to raise salaries if their pay is below the state average. SCS teachers are paid more than the state average, but Hopson said Monday he believes using the money for raises is “the right thing to do.” It’s unclear how much each teacher would receive under Hopson’s proposal.
A statement from SCS said Hopson is “committed to creating a sustainable system for rewarding hard-working, effective educators,” and would continue to “collect feedback from teachers and school leaders on our proposed compensation system.”
The board is expected to approve the 2017-18 budget, the district’s healthiest since the merger, in April.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.