Bentonville School Board discusses pay raises

File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette Emilee Helmuth, Apple Glen Elementary School Global Connections teacher, talks with second-graders last month at the school in Bentonville. The school board is considering staff raises.
File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette Emilee Helmuth, Apple Glen Elementary School Global Connections teacher, talks with second-graders last month at the school in Bentonville. The school board is considering staff raises.

BENTONVILLE -- School Board president Travis Riggs proposed giving teachers raises retroactive to the beginning of the school year, but fellow board members questioned the timing.

Riggs brought up the topic during Monday's board meeting, emphasizing it's been two years since teachers received a raise other than what they get through "step" increases, which are built into the salary schedule and provide teachers increases of about 1.3 percent annually.

Millage request

The Bentonville School District will hold a special election May 9 asking residents to approve a 1.9-mill tax increase, which would pay for two elementary schools, a middle school and a junior high school. Homeowners would pay an additional $38 per year for every $100,000 their home is worth.

Source: Staff report

"For this school year, are we going to do anything? I think we should," Riggs said, referring to giving raises.

Board member Eric White said there are a number of spending initiatives the board must tackle. White is leading the School District's millage campaign, and he was quick to note the proposed millage increase is a separate issue from teacher raises.

The district's request for a tax increase played a part in Monday's discussion. Voters will decide on the 1.9-mill tax increase on May 9.

"All of those things are independent from the millage. The millage we're asking for is intended for land and buildings," White said.

Joe Quinn, board secretary, said the board has had "spirited discussions" about things that should or should not be discussed alongside the millage issue and questioned whether a salary increase is one of those things.

"This is not a millage issue. This is operations," Riggs replied.

"That's my point. Do we really want to get into it now?" Quinn said.

Other board members didn't commit one way or another on Riggs' suggestion, but they agreed to discuss it further at a future meeting. That will give time for Janet Schwanhausser, finance director, to come up with figures showing exactly how a raise would affect the School District's finances.

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Exactly when the topic will be discussed again hasn't been decided, Superintendent Debbie Jones said.

Schwanhausser said it would be difficult to implement a retroactive pay raise if the board waited until after the election to approve one. Checks would have to be issued to each employee covering the difference between current salary and what the employee would have made if raises had gone into effect last summer.

"It requires a lot of manual entry on a per-person basis and a separate issuance of payroll checks at the same time we're gearing up to issue June and July payroll checks," Schwanhausser said.

The board last granted raises during the 2014-15 school year. Teachers got a 1.27 percent raise and classified staff -- including bus drivers, office assistants, mechanics and others -- got a 2.75 percent raise.

Bentonville's salary schedule for teachers ranges from $44,708 to $71,121, depending on experience and education. Only two districts in Arkansas -- Springdale and Rogers -- pay educators better, according to Dena Ross, the Bentonville district's chief operating officer.

Bentonville's operating budget this year is about $160 million. Giving staff members a 1 percent raise would add about $1.5 million to the district's annual operating budget, Schwanhausser said.

Riggs said he's heard teachers "rumble" about the fact they haven't gotten raises in two years. In response to questions from other board members, he said a step increase is "definitely a raise" but added it's not enough to keep up with inflation and health insurance costs.

"I'm just betting that nobody on this board has gone two years without a raise. I'm just betting that. I could be wrong. And I just want to acknowledge that," Riggs said.

Riggs also said he's grown tired of the board talking about using "growth money" -- money the state provides districts for enrollment growth -- on teacher raises without following through on such talk.

"It's a little bit of talking out of both sides of our mouth. And it's starting to bother me," he said. "Sometimes we're not even consciously having these discussions. We just go about our business and never really put it on the table or talk about it. I want to just make sure we're doing what we want to do."

NW News on 03/09/2017

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