Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Compensation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board approves 2.95% base increase for teachers, advances referendum-funded raises for hourly staff
Summary
The Waunakee school board approved a 2.95% base wage increase for the teacher group (matching a negotiated CPI request), approved similar base increases across hourly and administrative groups, and advanced additional step increases for hourly staff funded from the district’s operational referendum allocation.
The Waunakee Community School District board approved a package of compensation actions Monday that included a 2.95% base wage increase for teachers and base increases for other employee groups, and it directed a separate operational referendum allocation to accelerate raises for hourly staff.
A board member explained the 2.95% teacher increase was the maximum CPI increase negotiated with the teachers’ association; the district’s negotiators and the teachers’ association reached agreement and the board approved the administrative ratification. “We offered what the maximum CPI increase would be, 2.95%, which matched what they requested,” a district staff member reported during the meeting.
The board also approved a comparable 2.95% base increase for administrative and hourly employee groups. In addition, the board discussed three proposals for using the operational referendum wage pool (a multi-year fund the district set aside to increase compensation). The administration and committee recommended a proposal that would move custodial/maintenance employees by one additional step and move classified staff and administrative assistants by two additional steps. The presenters said those step movements would bring several hourly groups closer to peer averages and would be easier to communicate to employees.
District staff explained the referendum fund proposal would dip into the multi-year allocation to accelerate progress toward peer-average wages for custodial, classified and administrative-assistant groups; presenters noted peer wages continually change and the district’s efforts have been incremental over several years. A motion to implement the recommended referendum-funded steps was made and the board approved the recommendation.
Board members emphasized the district’s goal of reducing the wage gap with Dane County peers and noted the board had previously moved groups in off-cycle steps to address recruitment challenges. The transcript records voice votes on the motions; formal roll-call tallies were not included in the meeting text.
