Veteran MMSD teachers urge board to fix salary compression at public comment

Dozens of veteran teachers told the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education on Sept. 29 that the district’s salary schedule has left long-serving educators paid far below where their years of experience should place them.

At a packed public comment period, teachers described specific cases in which the district did not credit prior years of service when they were hired, leaving them multiple “steps” down the district pay scale compared with newer hires with similar total experience.

The teachers said the gap—commonly called salary compression—reduces morale, increases turnover risk and jeopardizes retirement security for staff who stayed in the district through repeated organizational changes. They urged the board and administration to study and correct placement on the salary schedule so veteran teachers’ pay reflects years of total teaching experience.

Shandra Kelsher, a Madison teacher who said she has taught in the district since 2011, told the board that she brought 14 years of prior experience when she was hired but was credited for only five. “This is my 29th year of teaching, and I am on level O,” Kelsher said. “It is inequitable that three teachers with the same amount of experience are so far apart on the pay scale.”

Kristen Conrad, a fifth-grade teacher at Glenn Stevens Elementary, described the financial difference new hires receive. “If I was hired right now by MMSD using the current HR policy, all my years of experience teaching would put me at level DD,” Conrad said. “That’s almost $10,000 higher than what I’m currently making on level V.”

Jana Casey, a special education program support teacher who said she has worked in MMSD since 1991, told the board that she would be at a higher step if rehired under current HR practice: “If I were to be hired right now using HR policy, I would be at level HH. I am not. I’m currently at AA. I’m seven levels from where I should be, which is approximately $6,500 less per year.”

Multiple other speakers gave similar examples from elementary and secondary classrooms and from student services, saying the district has removed steps from the salary schedule over multiple years without adjusting the placement of existing staff.

Speakers framed the problem as both a moral and operational issue: honoring institutional knowledge, improving retention of experienced staff, and avoiding forcing teachers to take multiple jobs to make ends meet. A number of speakers referenced legislators’ past actions (Act 10) and district human-resources practices while asking the board to prioritize a remedy in upcoming budget work.

Board members did not adopt a salary-fix measure at the Sept. 29 meeting. Several speakers asked the board to act quickly during the October budget process; others asked for a study and a plan to restore lost steps for those hired before recent HR placement changes.

The board acknowledged the comments during the meeting but took up a package of budget amendments and other business later in the agenda; no formal motion to reassign salary steps for the affected teachers was approved that night.

The public comment segment noted 29 written statements had been submitted to the board in advance on a variety of items, and many of those statements urged correction of salary compression for veteran classroom teachers. The board’s budget work in October was repeatedly referenced by speakers as the appropriate venue to consider remedies.