Academy School District 20 is set to vote on increasing teacher and faculty salaries this week. If approved by the district’s board of education, salaries would increase by a recurring 6% and mark a collective 25% increase over the past three years.

Working off additional per-pupil funding projected for the 2024-25 school year, district officials recently presented adjusted salary figures at an April work session.

Based upon the FY24-25 Public School Finance Act, D-20’s total program funding will increase by $702.16 per student, increasing to $10,766.83 per full-time equivalent in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Teachers and special service providers (SSP), classified staff, staff specialists and administrators were the four staff categories identified who would receive a 6% increase to their current wages, salaries and benefits.

The total increase in wages, salaries and benefits for the 2024-25 fiscal year would be $13,754,721.

This push to address salaries comes as the district looks to increase staff recruitment and retention.

D-20’s assistant superintendent of human resources Cameron Smart said recent raises also come in response partly to recent inflationary rates and cost of living increases in the area.

“We’ve been very aggressive in recent years to remain competitive throughout the region and throughout the state,” he said.

For the 2023-24 school year, the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no additional licensure is $48,800. The projected raise to $51,250 would come following a recurring 9% raise approved in 2023-24 and a recurring 10% raise approved in 2022-23.

Unlike these past years, health benefit costs through the district’s insurance provider are projected to increase rather than decrease. To avoid offsetting any salary gains through these increases, D-20 would also use the additional state revenue to cover these costs estimated at over $1.2 million.

District spokespeople explained that a larger district like D-20 is able to negotiate potential increases to their premiums with their insurance provider.

“The increase was going to be significantly more than that, but we were able to go to the table and bring that number down to what it is now,” Smart said. “A lot of other districts are probably looking at closer to a 15% increase (next year).”

In lieu of individualized increases for various positions and a larger recurring percentage raise, this adjustment would also increase other employee pay rates and benefits, including stipends for special education teachers, sports coaches and other extracurricular program directors.

Another adjustment would be the allocation of unused paid leave. Currently, any unused paid leave doesn’t roll over to the following fiscal year. Under the proposed changes, any unused leave would get reallocated as a bonus at the start of the next year.

Additional funding would come from budget cuts in district departments by 2%. Like the salary increases, similar cuts have been made in recent years to ensure the competitive rates for teachers and other staff.

Smart added that these cuts would also allow the district to hire additional security officers for its elementary schools.

“We try to find a variety of ways to keep cuts from making their way to our school buildings,” Smart said.

The vote on the proposed increases will take place during the district’s next regular board meeting Thursday.