Board OKs rules to allot $60M to raise teacher pay
The Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday approved emergency rules that pave the way for distribution of $60 million in new state aid to raise the minimum salaries of starting schoolteachers to $36,000 by 2022-23.
Arkansas lawmakers — at the urging of Gov. Asa Hutchinson — earlier this year passed Acts 170 and 877 requiring the increase in the state minimum salaries for beginning teachers with a bachelor’s or master’s degrees. While the new state-required minimum salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree will be $36,000 — up from $31,400, the new minimum for a teacher with a master’s degree and no experience will be $40,650 — up from $36,050.
The rules approved Thursday include the calculation the state is using to determine a district’s share, if any, of the available $60 million.
Districts that already pay a starting salary of $36,000 or more in the just-completed 2018-19 school year are ineligible to receive any of the funding, according to the newly approved rules. Districts such as Springdale and Bentonville where starting salaries are well in excess of $40,000 — are among the ineligible districts. The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District is another that exceeds the $36,000 minimum. The district’s starting salary was $38,000 this year and will be $38,500 in the coming year.
The Little Rock School District is to receive the most of the special state aid allocation, $2.65 million. Pulaski County Special is to receive $2.21 million and North Little Rock is to get $770,502. The Batesville School District is another of the big gainers at almost $1.19 million. The Pine
Bluff School District is to receive $958,989.
Most of the more than 160 districts receiving the aid will get six-figure amounts from the state with a handful receiving less than $100,000. The Dollarway School District, for example, is to receive $49,856. The Hackett School district can expect $4,620.
Courtney Salas-Ford, an attorney for the Arkansas Department of Education, said the districts have the choice of using the Act 170 money to reach the minimum requirements in one year or to phase in the higher salaries in increments over a period of four years.
Act 170 establishes annual minimums that must be met in an effort to meet the $36,000 and $40,650 goals. For example, in this coming school year, the districts must pay a minimum starting salary of at least $32,800 for a bachelor’s degree and $37,450 for a master’s degree. That must go to $33,800 for a bachelor’s degree and $38,450 for a master’s in 2020-21.
The districts will be responsible for maintaining the higher salaries over the long term, without the expectation of additional special state funding.
The plan for distributing the salary money comes at a time when school districts are planning teacher contracts and salaries for the coming year.
The Little Rock and Pine Bluff districts are planning to achieve the $36,000 and $40,650 minimum salary requirements in the coming school year. On other hand, the Earle School District in east Arkansas will phase in the increases in over multiple years, Tish Knowles, the district’s incoming superintendent, said Thursday.
Leaders of the Little Rock district and the Little Rock Education Association union that represents teachers and support staff in the district agreed Monday to a salary plan that raises the beginning salary to $36,000, up $1,135 from $34,865 this past year. Every step on the salary schedule also will increase $1,135.
Teacher members of the union and state Education Commissioner Johnny Key have since ratified that salary agreement. Key acts as the school board in the state-controlled district.
Education Board member Ouida Newton of Poyen on Thursday noted the districts’ responsibility to do that and asked Education Department staff members whether the districts can expect regular increases in traditional foundation aid — or state funding that is based on student enrollment — to help fund the salaries.
Ivy Pfeffer, the state’s deputy education commissioner, said she couldn’t say that but she did say the agency will assist the districts in thinking through their circumstances — which could include the loss of student enrollment and state funding or the reconfiguring of their staffing plans.
“We’ve talked about the importance of recruiting and retaining teachers,” Newton responded. “I don’t want to start something and not be able to carry it out,” she said.
Education Board Chairman Jay Barth of Little Rock noted that several of the state’s open-enrollment charter schools and a few traditional school systems have waivers from the state’s minimum salary law and are ineligible for the Act 170 funding. He wondered whether the funding would cause those schools to want to re-examine their state-approved waivers.
Board member Diane Zook of Melbourne complimented those districts that have previously “prioritized” their teachers by paying beginning salaries above the new minimums.
While the emergency rules for distributing the state funds were approved Thursday, those rules will apply only to the 2019-20 school year. The Education Board also approved a nearly identical set of rules to go out for public comment before the Education Board can act on them. Those rules, if approved, will apply in the 2020-21 through 2022-23 school years.
The newly approved calculation for determining a district’s share of the funding calls for subtracting a district’s minimum teacher salary for last year from the minimum salary required for the current year and multiplying that by the district’s number of licensed teachers in 2017-18, not counting those paid with federal funds. The formula includes an additional provision to take into account federal insurance contributions and teacher retirement matching rate.