Board backs legislature'funded one-time stipends and plan for differentiated teacher pay

The board voted unanimously to amend district salary schedules to distribute two separate legislative appropriations: a one-time stipend for all district employees and a targeted differentiated pay allocation for classroom teacher leaders. Why it matters: the measures convert state appropriations into payments for current employees and set district policy for distributing a small, targeted pool intended for teacher leadership roles. In the first action, trustees approved adopting the one-time stipend appropriation the legislature provided: $2,000 for each certificated position and $1,000 for each non-certificated position based on the district's 2024 fall employee report. District staff told trustees the legislature's allocation covered roughly $1.9 million for the district and that the board would add an estimated $157,000 from district funds to extend the stipend to newly added staff and pre-K positions so every employee receives the same one-time payment. Staff said the stipends must be distributed before Dec. 15 and planned to issue the separate checks on Nov. 7. On the second action, trustees approved a plan to use the legislature's $17.5 million statewide differentiated-pay appropriation to give additional stipends to classroom teacher leaders. Finance staff explained the state divided the statewide pool by reported teacher positions and arrived at $290.07 per reported classroom teacher, producing a district allocation of $157,943. The district proposed using that funding to pay $2,000 stipends to certified mentor teachers (about 30 mentors), stipends for curriculum cadre members who lead after-school professional development and $1,000 stipends for some instructional coaches; staff said about $60,000 remained from the prior year and would be added. Trustees discussed classification rules and confirmed librarians and counselors coded as certificated are included in the higher $2,000 allocation. The motions were forwarded to the full board for approval (both motions carried 10-0 at the committee level).