The school board for the Pulaski County Special School District on Tuesday walked back a 1.5% salary increase that it approved for some 1,000 teachers last month after the teacher chairman of the district's personnel policy committee said a legal procedure for enacting a raise was violated.
In a series of motions and votes, the School Board ultimately voted to send Superintendent Charles McNulty's proposed 1.5% across-the-board pay raise for state licensed teachers to the policy committee for a vote, and then have McNulty resubmit the proposal to the School Board in January for final action.
As a result of rescinding the raise Tuesday, teachers in the 12,000-student district will not receive in January the previously scheduled lump sum checks reflecting a pay increase retroactive to July 1. Any checks reflecting pay increases won't be given until pay raises are approved, said Shawn Burgess, the district's Human Resources director.
In October the personnel policy committee -- made up of five teachers and three administrators -- reviewed three salary increase options presented by district leaders. Committee members took no votes on any of them, Melissa Moore, the committee's chairman and a Sylvan Hills High teacher, told the board.
McNulty and his staff then proposed one of the options -- the 1.5% increase -- to the School Board in November without personnel committee leaders knowing that anything would be presented to and voted on by the board, Moore said.
Moore argued to the School Board that the law requires policy committee action on a proposal before it goes from committee to the board or, alternatively, a school board proposal must go to the policy committee for action before a school board's final vote.
Also Tuesday, the personnel policy committee recommended, and the School Board denied, a 2.5% across-the-board pay raise for teachers.
The policy committee also proposed Tuesday that the district enact a policy requiring that any percentage increase in future years be the same for all teachers in the district. The School Board sent that proposal back to the personnel committee for further review.
Linda Remele, reelected Tuesday by her colleagues to be board president, objected to the flat percentage plan saying it wouldn't give the School Board any flexibility to meet the state's newly increased minimum salaries for teachers.
A 1.5% increase would move the starting annual salary for a new teacher in the Pulaski County Special district who has a bachelor's degree to $34,618. The top salary for a district teacher with a doctorate and at least 17 years of experience would top $70,000, at $70,244.
A 1.5% pay increase for the district's support staff will be distributed in January. The support staff personnel policy committee did vote on the proposed 1.5% increase before the School Board vote for it in November.
Metro on 12/11/2019