MONROE - A committee of Monroe teachers, school board members and administrators have developed a new model for teacher compensation that will raise starting salaries but slow salary increases over a teacher's career. Under the new model, all teachers in the Monroe school district will receive a raise of at least $1,000 for next school year.
Business Administrator Ron Olson said the new system will save the district a little more than $100,000 per year after the first year.
"We recognize that we've had people frozen for a couple years and very minimal increases," Olson said. "We knew that this was going to be a big change for people, that we wanted to be able to provide an increase for people as we move into this new compensation plan, knowing that we're going to get better sustainability long-term."
The Professional Compensation Committee has been working on developing the new model for all professional staff in the district since February 2015, meeting 21 times over the course of about a year to look into staff priorities and research what systems other districts have developed. Professional staff includes teachers, school psychologists and guidance counselors.
The goal of the committee was to find a plan that would be both more sustainable than the current model - which is contributing to the problem of expenses rising faster than revenue - and attract and retain quality staff, according to a news release.
Members of the committee presented the recommendation to the full board of education at a meeting in March. The board voted unanimously on April 11 to adopt the new model starting in the 2016-17 school year. Board members Michael Boehme, Bob Erb and Scott Schmidt were not present at the April meeting.
For those who know Monroe's current salary schedule, the new model will look familiar. It's similar to the existing model, with only a few changes.
The current system uses a grid of "steps" and "lanes," where vertical lanes represent a teacher's education level and horizontal steps represent years of experience. Teachers can increase their wages by completing college credits or gaining extra degrees, which moves them across salary lanes. Likewise, each year of teaching experience moves a teacher down a step to a higher salary, until they reach the bottom step of the lane.
The proposed model works the same way but with 25 steps instead of the current 14 and 10 lanes instead of nine, and it increases the base salary to $37,500 to be more in line with other districts in the area and Badger Conference schools, according to the release. It also increases the top of the pay scale.
Brian Keith, school board treasurer and member of the compensation committee, noted that Monroe will still be near the bottom of the Badger Conference in terms of teacher salaries even after the new model takes effect. He said some other districts will be offering a base salary of $42,000 next year.
"So we are not - definitely not towards the top," Keith said. "We have to look at this going forward to see where we need to be to be competitive."
But where Monroe is more competitive is with long-term salaries, according to Olson. He said Monroe typically has a higher top end of its pay scale than the districts with higher starting salaries.
Under the new model, steps will no longer represent years of experience, though most teachers will move one step each year, Keith said. Teachers who are on a "Plan of Improvement" - meaning they were found to be underperforming and thus placed on a plan to remediate that - will usually not be eligible for a step increase.
With more steps, it will take longer for teachers to reach the top of the scale - at least 25 years - and each step will bring a smaller salary increase than it would have under the old model. Salaries will increase by $750 per step, which is about $100 to $1,000 less than it used to be. (Step increases used to depend on where the teacher was in the schedule.)
"That's where you're really starting to gain sustainability long-term," Olson said.
Lane movements will now come with a $1,050 raise every six credits earned by a teacher with a bachelor's degree or a $2,100 raise every 12 credits for one with a master's degree, which works out to an increase of $175 per credit. Under the old schedule, lane movements gave an increase between $137 and $210 per credit, Olson said.
Teachers who stay with the district will move from their current step and lane in the existing plan to the same lane in the new plan at whatever step provides them an increase of at least $1,000. Those with less teaching experience will see a larger increase because of the base pay increase from about $35,400 to $37,500. Nobody's salary will be frozen or decrease.
Some teachers have voiced concerns about the changes, Olson said, especially those in the middle of the old salary schedule, because they will be most negatively impacted.
"But, you know, as you build a plan to become more sustainable, that's the reality of it," he said.
Teachers will earn between $37,500 and about $68,900 for the first year under the changes. That's up from this year's salary range of about $35,400 to $66,900. By the fifth year of the new model, the salary range would rise to about $39,800 to $71,200, assuming a 1.5-percent Consumer Price Index growth each year. Olson noted that the numbers are projections that will change based on the actual CPI each year and the negotiation process.
The total cost of the salary schedule is projected to rise next year by 2.93 percent - just under $312,000 - under the new model. But after that year, growth should be slower than it would have been with the old model. This year, the salary schedule costs about $10.6 million.
There are 14 people on the compensation committee: nine teachers, school board members Keith, Dan Bartholf and Mary Berger, District Admin-istrator Cory Hirsbrunner and Olson.
After being presented the proposed model in March, district staff had the opportunity to give feedback with the possibility that the model could be revised based on the feedback, but no changes were made.
Administrators and teachers at the March meeting emphasized the importance of including teachers in developing the new plan.
"If this hadn't been collaborative, it would not have gone over as well," Olson said.
James Cassidy, a social studies teacher on the compensation committee, told the school board about the various compensation plans other Wisconsin school districts have implemented to deal with the same budgetary concerns. Cassidy is also co-president of the teachers union.
"Some districts were quick to rush into new plans and not take into consideration what staff opinions were or what staff wanted," Cassidy said. "I can honestly say that those of us on the committee are very thankful that this was a collaborative effort."
Business Administrator Ron Olson said the new system will save the district a little more than $100,000 per year after the first year.
"We recognize that we've had people frozen for a couple years and very minimal increases," Olson said. "We knew that this was going to be a big change for people, that we wanted to be able to provide an increase for people as we move into this new compensation plan, knowing that we're going to get better sustainability long-term."
The Professional Compensation Committee has been working on developing the new model for all professional staff in the district since February 2015, meeting 21 times over the course of about a year to look into staff priorities and research what systems other districts have developed. Professional staff includes teachers, school psychologists and guidance counselors.
The goal of the committee was to find a plan that would be both more sustainable than the current model - which is contributing to the problem of expenses rising faster than revenue - and attract and retain quality staff, according to a news release.
Members of the committee presented the recommendation to the full board of education at a meeting in March. The board voted unanimously on April 11 to adopt the new model starting in the 2016-17 school year. Board members Michael Boehme, Bob Erb and Scott Schmidt were not present at the April meeting.
For those who know Monroe's current salary schedule, the new model will look familiar. It's similar to the existing model, with only a few changes.
The current system uses a grid of "steps" and "lanes," where vertical lanes represent a teacher's education level and horizontal steps represent years of experience. Teachers can increase their wages by completing college credits or gaining extra degrees, which moves them across salary lanes. Likewise, each year of teaching experience moves a teacher down a step to a higher salary, until they reach the bottom step of the lane.
The proposed model works the same way but with 25 steps instead of the current 14 and 10 lanes instead of nine, and it increases the base salary to $37,500 to be more in line with other districts in the area and Badger Conference schools, according to the release. It also increases the top of the pay scale.
Brian Keith, school board treasurer and member of the compensation committee, noted that Monroe will still be near the bottom of the Badger Conference in terms of teacher salaries even after the new model takes effect. He said some other districts will be offering a base salary of $42,000 next year.
"So we are not - definitely not towards the top," Keith said. "We have to look at this going forward to see where we need to be to be competitive."
But where Monroe is more competitive is with long-term salaries, according to Olson. He said Monroe typically has a higher top end of its pay scale than the districts with higher starting salaries.
Under the new model, steps will no longer represent years of experience, though most teachers will move one step each year, Keith said. Teachers who are on a "Plan of Improvement" - meaning they were found to be underperforming and thus placed on a plan to remediate that - will usually not be eligible for a step increase.
With more steps, it will take longer for teachers to reach the top of the scale - at least 25 years - and each step will bring a smaller salary increase than it would have under the old model. Salaries will increase by $750 per step, which is about $100 to $1,000 less than it used to be. (Step increases used to depend on where the teacher was in the schedule.)
"That's where you're really starting to gain sustainability long-term," Olson said.
Lane movements will now come with a $1,050 raise every six credits earned by a teacher with a bachelor's degree or a $2,100 raise every 12 credits for one with a master's degree, which works out to an increase of $175 per credit. Under the old schedule, lane movements gave an increase between $137 and $210 per credit, Olson said.
Teachers who stay with the district will move from their current step and lane in the existing plan to the same lane in the new plan at whatever step provides them an increase of at least $1,000. Those with less teaching experience will see a larger increase because of the base pay increase from about $35,400 to $37,500. Nobody's salary will be frozen or decrease.
Some teachers have voiced concerns about the changes, Olson said, especially those in the middle of the old salary schedule, because they will be most negatively impacted.
"But, you know, as you build a plan to become more sustainable, that's the reality of it," he said.
Teachers will earn between $37,500 and about $68,900 for the first year under the changes. That's up from this year's salary range of about $35,400 to $66,900. By the fifth year of the new model, the salary range would rise to about $39,800 to $71,200, assuming a 1.5-percent Consumer Price Index growth each year. Olson noted that the numbers are projections that will change based on the actual CPI each year and the negotiation process.
The total cost of the salary schedule is projected to rise next year by 2.93 percent - just under $312,000 - under the new model. But after that year, growth should be slower than it would have been with the old model. This year, the salary schedule costs about $10.6 million.
There are 14 people on the compensation committee: nine teachers, school board members Keith, Dan Bartholf and Mary Berger, District Admin-istrator Cory Hirsbrunner and Olson.
After being presented the proposed model in March, district staff had the opportunity to give feedback with the possibility that the model could be revised based on the feedback, but no changes were made.
Administrators and teachers at the March meeting emphasized the importance of including teachers in developing the new plan.
"If this hadn't been collaborative, it would not have gone over as well," Olson said.
James Cassidy, a social studies teacher on the compensation committee, told the school board about the various compensation plans other Wisconsin school districts have implemented to deal with the same budgetary concerns. Cassidy is also co-president of the teachers union.
"Some districts were quick to rush into new plans and not take into consideration what staff opinions were or what staff wanted," Cassidy said. "I can honestly say that those of us on the committee are very thankful that this was a collaborative effort."