photo by: USD 497

A presentation slide shows the district's teacher salary matrix for the 2021-2022 school year.

The Lawrence school board will soon receive a report that compares the district’s teacher salaries to other nearby school districts and proposes various ways to change the district’s pay schedule to increase salaries.

As part of its meeting Monday, the Lawrence school board will receive the report of salary comparisons for teachers and other certified staff. The report is a follow-up on a previous discussion about salaries in the district, in which board members were told the Lawrence salaries were lagging behind some nearby districts.

Under the district’s 2021-2022 salary schedule, someone with a bachelor’s degree receives a starting salary of $41,758 per year, someone with a master’s degree a starting salary of $44,408 per year, and someone with a doctorate a starting salary of $51,008 per year. The salary schedule includes incremental pay levels between those three levels of education, based on semester hours earned toward a higher degree, as well as pay increases for additional years of service. Currently the matrix maxes out after 13 years of service, at $49,633 per year for someone with a bachelor’s degree, $55,658 for someone with a master’s degree, and $65,808 for someone with a doctorate. Teachers who have more than 13 years of experience in the district currently only receive a raise when the district and the union agree to make a general wage increase that affects the entire salary schedule matrix.

A subcommittee of the union representing certified staff, the Lawrence Education Association, has been reviewing the salary schedule and will present the report, according to a memo to the school board. The memo states the update is being presented “in the context of newly-proposed salary matrix options for staff with significant years of experience.” Following the previous presentation, the subcommittee identified three goals:

1. Review the salary matrix functionality

2. Review and make recommendations to the contract negotiations team regarding vertical step movement after step 13 (raises for additional years of experience)

3. Review and make recommendations to the contract negotiations team regarding horizontal step movement (raises for additional years of education)

The report compares Lawrence public school salaries to six other districts: Manhattan, Maize, Topeka, Kansas City (Kansas), Olathe, and Shawnee Mission. For example, compared to Lawrence’s starting salary of $41,758 for someone with a bachelor’s degree, Manhattan pays $42,200, Maize pays $44,100, Topeka pays $45,500, Kansas City pays $44,384, Olathe pays $43,286, and Shawnee Mission pays $43,779. Additional comparisons are made across levels in the salary schedules.

In addition to the comparisons, there are five proposals for providing raises. For example, one adds a fourteenth “step” in the salary matrix and provides additional raises in increments of five between the 15th and 25th years of service. Another proposal provides additional raises in increments of three between the 13th and 24th years of service. Others provide pay increases across the matrix in different ways.

The LEA has been pushing for raises for several years, and representatives have said ensuring the district’s pay is competitive is vital to retaining teachers. As the Journal-World previously reported, 205 teachers resigned or retired last school year, and at the end of September, 31 positions remained unfilled. The district received exit surveys from 91 teachers and other certified staff members, and general reasons respondents gave for leaving their position were “competitive salary within the field of education,” work-life balance, relocation and retirement.

Ahead of this school year, the board approved a contract with LEA that included about $1.05 million more toward the certified staff salary pool, including $862,616 to increase the overall salary schedule matrix, or a 1.8% increase, and $186,000 toward “horizontal movement” for increased education. Providing competitive pay for both certified and classified staff, such as paraeducators, has been identified as a priority for the district’s upcoming budget process.

The Lawrence school board will convene at 6 p.m. Monday at district offices. 110 McDonald Drive.