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District presents salary-matrix overhaul to meet STARS Act; union asks for personal impact data
Summary
The district showed a proposal to raise the entry-level base to STARS Act levels, add steps, and change attainment percentages; union members asked for individualized pay projections and warned of payroll-implementation pitfalls.
The district presented a proposed restructuring of the teacher salary matrix intended to bring the district into compliance with the STARS Act by raising the entry-level base to the $42,863 figure cited in the presentation. Andy explained that changing attainment levels and adding steps would redistribute pay: some staff near the top of the scale would gain substantial step increases while others at the bottom would see smaller absolute changes.
Andy walked the group through the mechanics: because the matrix is built on attainment ratios, simply increasing the base without altering attainment would create many cells that are out of compliance; the proposal therefore tightens attainment spreads and adds steps so most employees move at least one step. He illustrated the effect with cell examples and said the change could add roughly $5,000 for many mid-range staff and potentially $10,000 in a combined step-plus-base scenario.
Union members pressed for clarity about long-term implications for lifetime earnings, payroll-system impacts if steps or experience labels are relabeled (for example removing a "0-year" label or shifting 'experience' to "steps"), and whether automatic cost-of-living adjustments would be capped. Andy said the district would apply legislative cost-of-living adjustments up to 2.5% automatically and would reopen bargaining if the legislature required a larger increase. He acknowledged short-term cost pressure and offered to provide individualized examples and the spreadsheet to the union for review.
The group also discussed hiring incentives: current CBA language ties an incentive to a posted position (typically 5% to 10% of annual contract), but the district sought flexibility to raise the offered percentage within a range for time-sensitive or hard-to-fill roles; the union asked that any such discretion be clearly bounded in contract language. No vote or formal agreement occurred; Andy said he would share the spreadsheet and draft language for the union's review.
The negotiating teams agreed to continue the talks and tentatively scheduled a follow-up session.
