Certified and classified staff in RE-1 Valley School District will be getting raises next year, but not as much as they hoped for. During a regular school board meeting on Monday, Superintendent Dr. Martin Foster announced that district officials are recommending 10, 15 and 10 percent increases for certified, classified and administrative staff (excluding the superintendent), respectively.
The announcement was made as part of the board and district officials’ responses to requests that employees made related to salaries, benefits and working conditions at a meeting last month. At that time, employees represented by the South Platte Education Association had asked for a 15 and 20 percent salary increase for certified and classified staff respectively.
Before Dr. Foster’s announcement, Deb County, the district’s interim chief finance officer, explained that the state legislature has gotten rid of the budget stabilization factor, which was established in 2010-11 by the legislature as a way to reduce funding to districts to balance the state budget, meaning the district won’t see a reduction in its state equalization funding next year. However, rural funding, which the district received $405,000 from this year, will be reduced. At this time, the district is anticipating per-pupil revenue of $11,423.73 for next year, which is an increase of $954 from the current year.
A 10 percent increase in salary for certified staff next year will cost the district $543,064 and will move the base pay for teachers from $40,000 to $44,000. Dr. Foster also noted that every step on the salary schedule will increase by 10 percent, plus a step will be given for all employees currently working for the district, at a cost of $122,000, which means approximately a 12 percent increase in salaries for next year.
The 15 percent increase for classified employees will cost the district $556,000. Those employees will also receive a step, which means they’ll get close to a 17 percent increase in salary.
Additionally, the 10 percent pay increase for administrators will cost the district $168,000.
There was a request for longevity bonuses for both certified and classified staff but district officials aren’t recommending that at this time because they want to study it more. Dr. Foster said they felt as though the pay increases they are offering do “pay a lot of honor to everyone.”
School board vice president Ronda Monheiser pointed out that from her research moving the base salary for teachers to $44,000 will make RE-1 competitive with other schools in the area. Dr. Foster shared that it will still be under Morgan School District, which is moving from $48,000 to $50,000 next year, but it’s in line with Brush School District, which is moving to $45,000 and Northeastern Junior College, which will raise its salaries from $43,000 to $47,000 or $48,000, though a lot of their employees have master’s degrees.
“I think we’re maintaining a sense of competitiveness,” Dr. Foster said.
Board member Heather Harris asked if this is sustainable for the future. Dr. Foster said whether they can continue to provide raises in the future is a year-by-year question that must be taken into consideration. He advised that the district can only anticipate what its funding for the next year will be, not what it will be five years from now, because you never know what’s going to happen with the economy or what the Colorado Department of Education will do in the future, but he assured the board the district does have the dollars for next year to provide these increases.
For extra duty, district officials are recommending a 10 percent increase in salary, an estimated cost of a little over $30,000, and for certified sub pay, officials are recommending increasing it to $175 per day for category A and $150 per day for category B, a cost of $30,000. Classified subs will also see a pay increase of 15 percent,
Additionally, employees asked that coaches not be relied on, on a regular basis, to serve as activity drivers. Dr. Foster agreed with that but said the problem is the district can’t find drivers, so the recommendation is to add to the extra duty schedule a stipend to pay a coach or sponsor who drives a school vehicle and transports students $50 per trip if the trip is up to 50 miles from the school, or $100 per trip if it’s over 100 miles from the school.
Certified staff asked for class sizes to be capped, Dr. Foster told them he is not recommending to the board that they even consider that at this point because then schools become locked in and one week they might have 19 students in a class with a cap of 18, so a decision is made to hire another teacher, but then the next week students leave and you’re down to 17 students with an extra teacher you really didn’t need. Instead, his recommendation is that district administration continues to work closely with principals to monitor class sizes and hire additional teachers when needed and financially feasible.
Additionally, the district will continue to pay the full premium for the health, life and vision insurance for all certified employees and those classified employees who work 30 or more hours and will continue to ask classified and certified staff to volunteer for the health insurance committee each year. In regards to the district paying for part of the health insurance for classified employees who work less than 30 hours, that is not recommended, because Dr. Foster said if they start doing too many things to change the existing way the district is doing its health insurance bids it could result in the district having to pay more for insurance.
Officials are recommending doing research for next year to see if the district can find different dental insurance since many dentists in this area don’t accept Delta Dental.
In regards to a universal discipline plan, MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports), the recommendation is that the district administration work closely with principals, teachers and parents to establish a process for developing and implementing a schoolwide discipline plan for each school.
“This is critically important and needs to be done,” Dr. Foster said.
In regards to professional staff supplementary pay plans, an update to policy GCBC has been recommended stating that professional staff members having a teaching assignment over and above their contractual obligations will be paid 7.5 percent of the staff member’s current salary per semester or 15 percent of the staff member’s current salary per year. If the extra teaching assignment is part of a block schedule, pay will be 15 percent of the staff member’s current salary per semester or 30 percent of the staff member’s current salary per year. If the extra teaching assignment is part of a hybrid block schedule, pay will be 11.25 percent of the staff member’s current salary per semester or 22.5 percent of the staff member’s current salary per year.
District officials are also recommending trying to find a way to give preschool teachers more planning time, as well as bringing back the Sunshine Committees, which focus on improving culture, morale and the wellbeing of staff, but they are to be funded out of the student activities account, so the committees can decide how to spend their money.
Earlier in the meeting, the board got good news regarding next year’s health insurance. With the decision to switch from Aetna to Cigna, based on a unanimous recommendation by the district health insurance committee, total costs will decrease to $1,967,927.28 compared to $1,993,031.64 this year. The coverage will include the premium for the Cigna OAP Base plan, at a cost of $782.56, which is down from the current cost of the Aetna plan at $819.46.
Brian Hiller with Gordon Insurance and Benefit Health Advisors, the district’s insurance broker, explained that one of the things impacting next year’s rates is that the district is running at a 107 percent loss ratio this year and insurance companies typically like it to be somewhere around 85 percent. Last year the district was in the 80s, which is why they saw a reduction in the cost for health insurance.
Additionally, through six months of this year, the district’s two largest catastrophic claimants were larger than the two largest claimants for the prior year for 12 months.
In regards to the district’s decision last year to switch from Cigna to Aetna, Hiller told the board it wasn’t a bad decision; companies are ever-changing, and “we’re making the best decisions we can based off of the data.”
It was noted that while the district will be keeping Delta Dental for next year, rates have decreased by 4.66 percent. Also, the single rate for VSP vision insurance has changed from $9.47 to $9.60.
A preliminary budget for 2024-24 will be presented to the board at their May 20 meeting. They will consider adopting the budget at their June 17 meeting.
