An updated contract agreement between Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. administrators and teachers could result in a salary increase for a small group of teachers.
Members of the BCSC school board approved a memorandum of agreement between district administrators and teachers on Monday that adjusts the salaries of teachers hired between the 2013-14 and 2015-16 school years.
Teresa Heiny, assistant superintendent for human resources, said that before 2013, Indiana school districts were allowed to give teachers built-in salary adjustments every year as they gained another year’s teaching experience.
However, a change to the statewide teacher evaluation system means that school districts can no longer offer the built-in salary adjustments each year, Heiny said. Instead, BCSC now considers two factors when determining changes to teachers’ salaries:
Whether a teacher has been rated effective or highly effective
A teacher’s degree attainment — a bachelor’s degree, a bachelor’s plus 15 credit hours or a master’s degree
The school district developed a starting salary schedule for newly hired teachers based on steps — or years of experience — and for degree attainment of a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
The steps range from Step 0, no previous experience, to Step 5, which represents five years of previous experience for a teacher who is new to BCSC. There is a 2 percent salary increase between each step, Heiny said.
However, district leaders discovered that the experience increment of the 2016-17 new-hire salary schedule unfairly benefits new BCSC teachers with the same level of experience as teachers who were already working for the district.
BCSC wanted to ensure that teachers who have returned to BCSC each year are earning more than those who are new to the district, Heiny said, so the memorandum of agreement adjusts the salaries of teachers hired between the 2013-14 and 2015-16 school years.
The teachers hired in that time frame will see their salaries adjusted to reflect the 2016-17 placement schedule that corresponds with either the placement step and bachelor’s/master’s attainment increment they were placed on when they were hired or their current salary, whichever is greater.
The salaries of some teachers hired during those three school years may increase, but none will decrease, Heiny said.
“We just want to make sure that the teachers that have stayed with us are compensated correctly,” she said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”2016-2017 BCSC new hire salary schedule” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Step 0
Bachelor’s degree: $36,720
Master’s degree: $37,415
Step 1
Bachelor’s degree: $37,041
Master’s degree: $38,538
Step 2
Bachelor’s degree: $37,782
Master’s degree: $39,964
Step 3
Bachelor’s degree: $38,539
Master’s degree: $40,887
Step 4
Bachelor’s degree: $39,309
Master’s degree: $41,910
Step 5
Bachelor’s degree: $40,094
Master’s degree: $43,375
[sc:pullout-text-end]
