The Knox School Board has ratified its master teacher agreement with some teachers seeing a bit of a bump in salary.
During Monday’s School Board meeting, it was noted that Knox teachers have not seen a salary increase in about three years. That is largely explained by declining enrollment in rural school corporations in past years.
A one-percent raise was designated for the 2017/18 school year, but Superintendent A.J. Gappa says that is not across the board.
“After the current school year that we’re in, starting with 17/18 the minimum salary we hope to be $34-thousand,” says Gappa. “Right now I think it’s at $32,552.”
Knox schools saw a modest increase of 16 students in the ADM count, affording them about $6-thousand per student.
That, combined with some cost control measures has allowed Knox to afford the salary increases over the last year. Knox Schools implemented a reduction in force for some of its employees to cut costs last year.
Even with those measures, teachers must receive an “effective” or “highly effective” rating in order to qualify for the salary increase. Gappa says it’s difficult to find savings to pay employees under current funding models
“It was a matter of being frugal, of not overspending and trying to build into the budget the ability to do that,” says Gappa.
No other major changes were noted. The state still requires approval of the contract, the document has not been sent to Indianapolis for review.
Gappa says there was no change in leave time or other benefits that are often up for negotiation.
