R-12 Budget Includes Big Raises for Teachers

Some area teachers are giving an A+ on an idea to increase their salaries. 

The Springfield R-12 school board is considering a preliminary budget for next school year which includes a big boost for teachers.

A first year teacher with a bachelor's degree would go from starting out at about $30,000 a year to $32,000-  a 6.5% difference.

On top of that, all teachers would get a four and half percent cost of living raise.  That's good news for teachers, says Michael Carr, president of the Springfield chapter of the Missouri State Teacher's Association, "We've always been around 1.5 or 2 percent if we're lucky but we've never had anything this high so it comes out to be a fantastic commitment that the board is saying yes we're behind you and what you're wanting is important to put the district back where it should be."

Teachers have been asking for this kind of raise for a number of years. A recent R-12 survey of Springfield voters showed 90 percent favored increasing teacher's salaries.

Educators say this is particularly important to stay competitive with area school wages.  The move would make salaries equal to the highest in southwest Missouri.

Also in the proposed budget are an additional 7.5 teaching positions to keep class sizes down with increasing enrollment, five new Baily Alternative school employees, an athletic director for each high school, eighteen assistant football coaches for the nine middle schools and $100,000 for transportation changes.  Plans for how the district wants to do that will be brought up at next month's meeting.  Remember, it removed the suggestion of a three tier bell system and transportation for all students living a mile or more from school last week.

The budget the district is considering for the 2007-2008 school year totals about $190.8 million.  The district proposes to pay for all of these additions in the following manner:

*The district is getting more money from the state this year because of a revised funding formula
* It's going to use all of the tax levy instead of rolling it back to taxpayers as the district's done in previous years
* It's going to take about $3.5 million out of reserves.

Another addition the R-12 district is considering for next school year is more efficient lighting.  Custom Energy, a Kansas City firm, says it can replace the district's lighting in 61 buildings for about $3.8 million, but it would save the district $375,000 a year.

"Basically what the school district can do is implement energy efficient lighting in all their schools and improve the light levels for the betterment of education spaces for students and reduce lighting energy costs about 40%," explained Koby Kampschroeder with Custom Energy.

Springfield Public Schools would probably finance those efficiency changes over 15 years.
The board will have several public input sessions in the next few months before making a final decision on the budget by June 26.