Kyrene loses ground in salary competitiveness for teachers

By Diana Whittle

- Advertisement -

Teachers in the East Valley can receive higher compensation in several nearby school districts, when compared to Kyrene.

This is one of the key research findings, gathered by human resources consultants Fox Lawson and Associates, in a review of salary competitiveness for the 2015-16 school year.

Researcher Annette Hoefer warned the Kyrene Governing Board during her recent presentation that “Kyrene is losing ground in the marketplace.

“To attract high-quality applicants and to retain experienced teachers, Kyrene may want to consider a phased approach to increasing salaries over the next five years,” said Hoefer.

The consultants’ task was to review four categories of school-district employees, including support personnel, selected directors, the speech language technician, and teachers in grades K -8.

Currently the range difference of the teachers’ salary is approximately 12.7 percent below the market minimum, which looks at comparable school districts across the state. Other districts studied in the East Valley include Chandler, Gilbert, Higley, Mesa and Tempe Elementary. Last year, the researchers identified that the market difference was 10 percent.

Director positions in human resources, community education and facilities also showed a substantial lag in their salary ranges by 13 percent; along with support staff who were found to be paid about 11 percent behind colleagues in other districts.

Only the speech language technician earned a salary that ranked higher than other districts by 8.2 percent.

The pay philosophy adopted by the Kyrene Governing Board is to increase total compensation for employee groups from the 2013-14 baselines to being in the top third or 67th percentile of comparable districts in Arizona by Feb. 15, 2017. But, this pay increase must be accomplished in a way that is affordable and does not compromise student learning.

Starting pay for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree begins at $35,332 in Kyrene. This is adjusted to $37, 943 for teachers with master’s degrees. Kyrene does not have a salary cap on teachers in the system, but the current top salary is $68, 477.

“Fox Lawson will help Kyrene to conduct annual surveys for the next three years on the pay ranges of specific jobs and make expert compensation recommendations to be included in the budget plan,” said Mark Knight, assistant superintendent, who is responsible for the Human Resources Services Division.

“We are currently in the second year of the surveys and Fox Lawson is recommending to the board that the Kyrene School District consider a five percent market adjustment for the next three years to bring pay ranges in alignment with the market.”

As the lead negotiator for the Kyrene employees in their meet and confer processes, Knight requested that the Governing Board consider the recommended market adjustment during the upcoming budget hearings, so he can take that message to employee groups.

Board president Ross Robb indicated that he is favorable to the salary increase, but that the issue would have to be considered closely to determine its fiscal impact.

“I don’t know if we will be able to meet our goal of moving into the 67th percentile, but at the same time, it’s disturbing to know that we are currently moving backward in teacher pay.”

Another discussion on compensation is on the Governing Board’s agenda for Jan. 26.

Comments

  1. Hey Rod, prob suggest you don’t use airfreight service like Shipbucktu for bigger items as in my exprience it is always really expensive and most operators hate having bulky items in the hold. anyway, don’t the sbt guys say nothing more than the courier limit of 30kg by weight or size…?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Advertisment

Latest e-Edition

Advertisment
Advertisment

Follow Us

2,648FansLike
953FollowersFollow

Weekly Email Newsletter

Latest

Join Our Family...

Wrangler Newsletter

One email

Once a week

Unsubscribe anytime

Welcome to The Wrangler Community!