District won’t raise 2024-25 staff salaries
ESSER funding is ending, moving many costs locally
FORT SMITH — After making the largest one-time investment in its history the previous two years to comply with the LEARNS Act, the School District won’t change staff salaries for the upcoming school year.
The School Board, during its meeting Monday, unanimously approved continuing with the current salary schedule.
Charles Warren, the district’s chief financial officer, noted during the meeting that Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program funding — approved by Congress in 2020 to help schools address the impact of the covid-19 pandemic — is ending, moving many costs, including salaries, from a federal back to a local responsibility.
Warren showed the School Board previous salary schedules, which had a teacher base salary of $38,500 for the 2021-22 school year, a $44,000 base pay for the 2022-23 school year and a $50,200 base pay for the 2023-24 school year.
The raises cost the district $6.9 million during this school year and will cost roughly $7.8 million with anticipated salary increases during the next school year.
The latest pay increase was due to the LEARNS Act, education legislation championed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The legislation, passed last year, amends various provisions of Arkansas code related to early childhood through grade 12 education in the state. Some highlights include increasing the state’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, moving Arkansas from 48th to fifth in the nation in beginning salary; and implementing a bonus program providing up to $10,000 for teachers achieving the best results.
The salary schedule for certified teachers in Fort Smith continues to be $50,200 for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree, with a raise of $175 per year of experience for the first nine steps, then increasing $675 for each additional step. Pay for first-year teachers with a master’s degree is $52,900 with a $675 increase per step.
The salary schedule is capped at 25 steps. Teachers with a bachelor’s degree receive $62,200 at the final step; those with a master’s degree receive $69,100.
Lanes refer to what education background employees have: classified, meaning they don’t have a teaching license, which includes paraprofessionals, bus drivers and food service; certified with a bachelor’s degree and certified with a master’s degree. Steps refer to experience, with teachers receiving a raise for each year of experience they have.
“There are still opportunities for them to have educational increments if they are so qualified, but it is important to note that while there will be a step increase for over 60% of our teachers, there are still some that are at the step 25 and would not have any step increase to enjoy,” Warren said. “And that’s a dilemma we faced in the past, and that’s a realization we have to deal with again.”
Warren said there are currently 232 teachers in the district who are at step 25. He said he believes 25 steps is the ideal number and is consistent with what is seen across the state, especially in the River Valley.
Van Buren School District’s base salary this school
year was $50,000 and goes to 30 steps.
Bentonville’s minimum teacher pay this school year is $51,924, up from $48,755 last school year. Bentonville’s salary schedule goes up to 26 steps, with teachers with 25 or more years of experience receiving a salary of $65,575. Fayetteville School District’s minimum teacher salary for 2023-24 is $52,000 and goes to 30 steps.
Ryan Gray, president of the Fort Smith Education Association, said he is not satisfied that there are no additional raises to the base pay for the coming school year, but understands it is due to the difficulty of complying with the LEARNS Act.
“Our district is not immune to these issues, so we look forward to working with our administration to find other benefit incentives to reward veteran employees who will not see a pay increase for the 2024-25 school year,” he said. “In a time when teacher shortages are a problem across the state and country, our district cannot afford to lag behind when it comes to salary schedules, and we have faith that our district administration and board recognize this and will do everything possible to ensure our district is not just competitive, but a leader in educator pay and benefits moving forward.”
“It’s unfortunate that we have to pause as we wait to see what the future of school funding looks like in the state of Arkansas,” Warren said. “But we do believe, because of this restructuring, that we are in a much better place for where we can go in the future than where we would’ve been if we had stayed put.”