Agenda - 11-10-1998 - Attachment #8

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Recommendations for Revising the Local Teacher Supplement Schedule Background st spring, the Board of Education asked the administration to develop proposals for revising the local teacher supplement schedule. The Board's primary concern was that teachers in our district with fewer than ten years of experience were receiving a lower local supplement than teachers with comparable experience in other metropolitan districts in the state. Initially, the Board asked the administration to suggest a plan that would reduce the supplement at the upper end of the scale and raise it at the lower end. Some Board members also expressed an interest in establishing some relationship between the local supplement and teachers' effectiveness and/or level of responsibility. These possibilities were met with vehement opposition by many teachers who expressed the belief that teachers in the district should continue to be compensated at rates no lower than those on the present supplement schedule. The Superintendent then recommended that an advisory committee be convened to research this issue further and to develop alternatives for the Board's consideration. A committee was formed last spring and met several times before adjourning for the summer. The committee continued to meet through January, 1998 when it completed its work. The committee consisted primarily of teachers but also included principals, central office administrators, and school board members. The Superintendent chaired and facilitated the meetings. Criteria considered when evaluating options The Committee agreed that the following criteria and questions should be considered when evaluating each of the options: • Does the supplement help support the district's educational goals? • Does it help us to compete successfully for well qualified teachers? • Does it help us to retain our best teachers? • Does it provide an incentive for teachers to improve their performance or assume • additional responsibilities? • Does it send a message of support and appreciation to teachers? • Which teachers would the new supplement plan benefit and which would it hurt? • What are the short and long range financial implications of the plan? • Is the plan easy to administer and to explain to prospective and present teachers? • Is the plan "fair" to both prospective and present teachers? Current Supplement Schedule The current supplement schedule was developed ten years ago at a time when veteran teachers across the state were frozen on the salary schedule. This meant that teachers were not given full credit by the state for their actual years of experience. This resulted in a relatively "flat" salary schedule that provided little reward for longevity. Consequently, a local supplement schedule was developed which ranged from a 1 % supplement for beginning teachers to a 25% supplement for teachers with twenty -five or more years of experience. This schedule was quite different from those adopted by other competing school districts in the state, most of whom offered a 10% supplement to their teachers regardless of experience. In 1993, the Board of Education took steps to generate some savings in the administration of the supplement schedule which were then used to increase the minimum supplement of I%. The administration worked with a subcommittee of the Professional Personnel Policy Committee (PPPC) to devise a plan whereby teachers who joined the