At its April 25 regular meeting, the board unanimously voted to approve the employee compensation plan. The plan includes a general pay increase, pay structure adjustments, specific pay grade placement changes and an increase to critical-area teaching stipends, according to the agenda item’s memo.
Specifically, all administrators will receive a 2.1% raise; counselors will get a 2.6% raise; teachers and nurses will get a 3.1% raise; operational staff members will receive a 4.3% raise; and paraprofessional employees will get a 4.8% raise, according to the compensation plan presentation given by Chief Human Resources Officer Tracy Johnson.
Broken down, the starting pay for all teachers, librarians and nurses will increase from $56,800 to $59,000, Johnson’s presentation showed. Operational and paraprofessional staff will see a minimum pay phase-in model, which will slowly increase starting hourly rates to $15 by the 2023-24 school year.
For the 2022-23 school year, starting paraprofessional minimal hourly rates will increase to $13.50 from $12.74, and starting operational hourly rates will increase to $13, which is up from $12.25, according to the presentation.
The annual stipends for self-contained special education teachers will increase to $4,100—up from $2,040—Johnson’s presentation showed. Bilingual teachers’ annual stipends will also increase from $3,570 to $4,570.
The estimated cost of the compensation plan will be about $8.6 million, KISD Chief Financial Officer Scott Wrehe said at the meeting. By finding various areas of the budget to save money, such as delaying some 10-year projects by a year and reducing campus and department budgets, the district will be able to save about $3.2 million.
“There's not a single person up here [on the board of trustees] ... that do not believe in our teachers and believe that we need to do everything possible for our staff to make sure that we have done what we can do in a very tight financial situation to honor you and honor the work that you have managed to get through these last couple years,” KISD Superintendent Rick Westfall said at the meeting.
