Fayetteville board hears proposal on salaries, career education

FAYETTEVILLE -- School Board members listened to a proposal to adjust salary schedules and an update on career education programs for high school students during a Thursday workshop at Fayetteville High School.

Greg Mones, director of human resources, will ask School Board members at their May 26 meeting to approve changes to the salary schedule for administrators.

Salaries for principals, assistant principals and district directors now are calculated off of the teacher salary schedule for 2016-17, using a multiplier for each administrative position, Mones said. Administrators also have received extra pay for larger campuses, starting at 2 percent more for campuses with 500 children.

That meant in the fall, if campuses with 500 students dipped below that level, principals would lose that additional 2 percent, Mones said.

He said the proposed changes would also ensure the eight elementary and middle school assistant principals moving to different schools next year wouldn't see a reduction in salaries. The changes could have caused a dip in pay for any assistant principal moving from a larger to smaller school.

"We wanted to eliminate that," Mones explained during his presentation.

The proposal would eliminate the extra pay for larger groups of students and would replace administrative grades in the policy with an index for each position, Mones said. The plan changes the way the salaries are calculated but doesn't change administrator salary levels.

The 2016-17 salary schedule for teachers reflects a $1,000 increase the School Board already approved for all levels of experience and education. Teachers also will receive step increases built into the salary schedule for additional years of experience and higher levels of education.

The Walton Family Foundation and the Northwest Arkansas Council have taken an interest in career education, providing money for superintendents and administrators to visit models of career education centers around the country, said Kim Garrett, associate superintendent for Fayetteville.

Some Benton County districts have discussed developing a regional career center in that county, and talks have started in Washington County, too, Garrett said.

Regional career centers can offer third- and fourth-year career courses that often are too expensive for a single high school, she said. If such a center developed, Fayetteville High School would continue to offer a variety of introductory career courses.

Pre-engineering and computer science programs were added this year. Pre-engineering is an introductory course targeted to ninth-graders, said Randal Dickinson, one of the program's teachers.

The only career and technical education program with Advanced Placement courses is the computer science program, said Marianne Hauser, the district's director of career education.

Dickinson told the School Board he's interested in making the engineering count more like the Advanced Placement courses as a way to attract higher-achieving students.

A new option in computer science is Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles, computer science teacher Emery Faulkner said. He hopes more girls will take an interest in computer science because the Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles course provides digital experience with animation and music.

Career and technical education teachers have sought certification programs for their students, and the next focus will be on the development of a formal internship program, Hauser said. The idea would be for pre-engineering students to have internships with engineering companies, for example.

NW News on 05/13/2016