School teacher pay big issue for districts

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — How much a public school teacher earns in Northwest Arkansas depends largely on where he or she works.

Starting a career in education with the Springdale School District will pay a first-year teacher at least $47,766 for the 2018-19 academic year, which began this week for most area schools.

The same teacher could go to work about 30 miles away in the Decatur School District, but end up making $31,800, the state-mandated minimum for teachers — and one-third less than what Springdale offers.

In Gentry, that teacher would start at about $35,000 per year.

Such is the gap in teacher pay across the 15 school districts in Benton and Washington counties. The varying levels of salaries and benefits, which make up the majority of all school districts’ expenses, are a huge indicator of the financial resources each district has to work with.

In general, the smaller the school district, the less teachers are likely to earn. Northwest Arkansas’ six smallest districts by enrollment also happen to make up the bottom six in terms of minimum teacher pay.

Some school administrators cite the pay gap as a problem when it comes to retaining qualified staff members.

Chris Goering, a professor of English education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, has spent time in many public schools across Northwest Arkansas through his job. He’s troubled by the difference in financial resources among the districts, which he said presents a significant opportunity gap for students in the region.

“Are the best teachers going to trend toward jobs that pay less?” he said. “Just because a kid grows up in Greenland, does he deserve less qualified teachers or facilities that are inferior?”

SALARY STRUGGLES

The area’s four largest districts — Springdale, Bentonville, Rogers and Fayetteville — offer teacher salaries that start about $45,000 and increase annually. The nexthighest minimum salary is in Gravette, where a firstyear teacher gets $42,100.

A first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree in the Greenland School District will make $34,513 this school year. That’s a 3 percent increase from last year, but it’s still the third-lowest figure among Northwest Arkansas’ 15 districts.

The average pay for all teachers in Greenland last school year was $40,700 — nearly $5,000 less than the minimum teacher pay in the Fayetteville School District, which borders Greenland. The Fayetteville School Board voted in June to increase salaries for teachers by an average of 2.5 percent.

Andrea Martin, in her second year as Greenland’s superintendent, expressed some frustration at not being able to offer similar salaries as some neighboring districts.

“That disparity is what hurts us greatly,” Martin said. “We just don’t have the resources to boost our scale that high.”

Greenland spends a lot of money training teachers, only to watch many leave for higher-paying schools. The district experienced a staff turnover rate of 23 percent last summer; this year, it was a more manageable 9 percent, Martin said.

She said retention is harder than recruitment.

“I think we’re getting a lot of the fresh graduates and new teachers coming out,” she said. “But once they get those first few years under their belt, they’re feeling able to venture to that next job. Unless they have a strong Greenland tie, they’re probably going to go.”

It was much the same in two other small Arkansas districts Martin worked for, she said.

Jeff Gravette, hired this summer as assistant superintendent of the Gravette School District, spent the past four years as Decatur’s superintendent. Decatur was one of 30 districts in the state last year where the minimum salary matched the state mandate.

Decatur often drew a decent number of applicants. It wasn’t unusual to receive 50 applicants for a typical elementary school job, Gravette said.

“Decatur and other small districts are blessed by the thriving economy and the quality-of-life factors in Northwest Arkansas,” he said. “I’d say at least a third of the applicants came from out of state.”

But Decatur, like Greenland, has trouble retaining teachers. One reason is the low pay, especially as larger districts continue to grow and open more schools, thus creating more job opportunities.

Bentonville opened six schools this decade and will open two more by 2020. Rogers will open an elementary school next year. Springdale has three new schools since 2013 and plans to open phase two of the Don Tyson School of Innovation and another elementary school in 2020.

Another big reason teachers leave Decatur is the lack of housing in the district; much of Decatur is farms and undeveloped land, Gravette said.

“I had so many new teachers come in, develop over a few years and get a job in one of the big four districts,” he said. “That to me is the biggest challenge. When you’re hiring so many first-year teachers, you won’t make the academic gains that other districts are able to show because of the salaries.”

LACKING RESOURCES

Bob Chism has been a teacher for 33 years, including the last 17 teaching fourth grade in the West Fork School District, which enrolled about 1,000 students last year.

Chism earns more than most teachers because of his longevity, but a West Fork teacher with a bachelor’s degree must have 22 years of experience to make the same as a teacher just starting a career in the Springdale district.

The morale of his coworkers is generally good, but the pay issue is “definitely a sticking point” for them, he said. They shop in the same places as their peers in wealthier, neighboring districts.

But salaries are just one issue for him.

Chism spoke at a school board meeting in November about his school’s outdated textbooks, claiming he didn’t have the materials he needed to teach.

“Basically, what has been happening for years is, people just rely on the Internet,” Chism said. “You go and find something, you print it off, and you give it to the kids.”

He presented West Fork’s most recent standardized test scores for the third and fourth grades. Among the fourth-graders in 2017, 43 percent achieved proficiency in literacy, compared to 49 percent statewide; and 44 percent achieved proficiency in math, compared to 56 percent statewide.

Since that board meeting, Chism said, the school bought him some English textbooks, which are six or seven years old. He said they made a difference in student test results last spring, but he’s the only teacher who has the texts.

John Karnes, West Fork’s superintendent, did not return a phone message and an email message seeking comment.

FUNDING MECHANISM

Article 14 of the Arkansas Constitution requires the state to “maintain a general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools and … adopt all suitable means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.”

Article 2 mandates the government not grant anyone privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, are not equally available to all.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in 2002 the state was not meeting that requirement in Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, which challenged the constitutionality of Arkansas’ public school funding system. Lawmakers subsequently passed legislation to address inequities raised in the Lake View case.

The state guarantees districts receive a certain amount of money per student per year. That amount was $6,713 per student last school year. Each district has a constitutionally mandated minimum property tax rate, or millage rate of 25 mills, that goes toward that perstudent amount; the state provides the balance.

Local, state and federal dollars fuel the state’s school districts. Property taxes are a major source of revenue. How much money districts raise through property taxes depends on the overall assessed value of property within each district, as well as each district’s millage rate.

A mill is one-tenth of a cent, generating $1 of property taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value. A county assesses property at 20 percent of its appraised value, and the assessment is multiplied by the millage rate to determine the taxes owed.

Decatur, a district of 49 square miles and three schools, has about $60 million worth of assessed property value, Gravette said. The neighboring Gravette School District has four schools and about $300 million in assessed value. Bentonville has 19 schools and close to $2 billion in assessed value.

Bentonville also benefits from having one of the highest millage rates in the state as a result of tax increases voters have approved, including a 1.9-mill increase last year. Bentonville’s millage rate of 48.5 is nearly nine mills higher than Decatur’s and Greenland’s rates.

Greenland last passed a millage increase in 2008. Decatur voters last passed a millage increase in 2005 to pay for a new elementary and middle school.

This year’s candidates for governor believe in boosting pay for teachers, though they have different thoughts on how to accomplish that.