Teacher salaries were a big topic during the May meeting of the West Plains R-7 School Board meeting.
Missouri House Bill 727 was recently passed, and is legislation that applies to public education included academic standards, minimum required school terms, charter schools, and base teacher salaries. The bill was discussed by Superintendent Dr. Wes Davis.
Though the bill as a whole will go into effect in August, there will be parts of it that won't go into effect until later, Davis pointed out.
"Some things are very, very good for us, some things have the potential to be good for us, and some things I don't know," he commented.
The reimbursement for R7’s preschool will double from 4% to 8%, he said, and there is a new grant for small schools grant which will not benefit the West Plains school district directly, but will help some of the area schools, doubling from $15 million to $30 million.
"One thing that probably had a lot of people worked up was the expansion of charter schools. That did pass, into Boone County, which is Columbia. Columbia will now have charter schools. And people might say, ‘Well, that doesn't affect us.’ Well, first of all, that's more money that's going to be taken out of the pie to that charter school," he said. "But, it will be Greene County in a year, or down in Joplin. It's going to continue to grow. Once that starts, it just keeps going."
Each of the subjects was talked about by Davis, who reminded board members that teacher minimum salary was increased through that legislation to $40,000 for teachers with a bachelor's degree and $46,000 for teachers with a master's degree and at least 10 years of experience in a public school, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. Additionally, according to legislature, the more experienced teachers will have a salary increase of $1,000 per year for the next two years, when the minimum will be $48,000.
The minimum base pay required by the state was $25,000, though some districts had already begun to raise their base pay to attract new hires and avoid having to adjust the increase all at once.
As part of the bill, a teacher baseline salary grant fund and program will be created to help school districts absorb the costs of the minimum salary increases, through grants administered by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Sylvia Hershenson, a middle teacher who heads the district's salary committee and helps negotiate pay and benefits, made a presentation to board members and commented that she is excited for the opportunity for new teachers to make a higher salary, but reminded the board longtime teachers need to be recognized for their experience and compensated accordingly.
After speaking with teachers, Hershenson requested a grant already approved for teachers that would compensate at a rate of $1,000 over base salary, to be doubled to $2,000, in part to help ensure teacher retention and cover cost of living increases.
She also made a request that staff who have accumulated over 100 days of paid time off go from $50 to $70 per day for noncertified staff and from $50 to $100 for teachers, taking into account the rate of pay for substitute teachers is now $100 per day.
"One thing that's fantastic for us is how our payment is calculated," Davis noted, explaining the district is paid by the state based on attendance percentage rather than enrollment numbers, and that will improve yearly until 2030, when the new law which implements weighted attendance goes into effect.
The May 21 meeting took place at the middle school library instead of the high school library because construction has begun on walling in an area to eliminate some outside entrances, mainly for safety reasons. The construction, between the library and the main high school building, will also result in additional instructional space.
Human Resources and Student Services Director Matt Orchard gave a progress report on that and other capital projects, including a fence being installed between the middle school and high school so both of the buildings have to be entered through the main entrances.
Another planned safety improvement involves asking the city to vacate an alley behind the agriculture building so the district has better control over foot traffic through that area of school property. There have been problems in the past with people walking through, including one person who confronted a school staff member during school hours and assaulted a school resource officer.
Orchard commented he's been finalizing that request and is working with the city to meet its requirements, including notifying residents in that area of the possible closure of the alley.
Another large project that will be underway soon is the removal of underground fuel tanks on the bus barn lot off of North College Street, to be replaced by aboveground tanks.
