District Teachers Salaries are Likely to be Frozen Another Year

When the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) and the SMSD’s negotiating teams meet to write teachers’ contracts, the ultimate goal is a “win-win” contract, according to KNEA Executive Board Member and Spanish teacher Linda Sieck.

But at the end of last May, due to budget constraints, the decision was made to freeze district teachers’ salaries at current levels, and according to Sieck and Principal Karl Krawitz, it is likely that the same freeze will be put in the next contract.

“The district’s intention, probably without any question, is to freeze salaries again,” Dr. Krawitz said.

The KNEA’s negotiating team and the district’s team’s yearly goal is to have contracts for the upcoming year written by the start of the summer. According to Sieck, they meet often to discuss any changes the teachers’ would like to their contracts, as well as what is necessary for the district’s budget.

In the district, teachers’ salaries can move up the pay scale in two ways. The first is moving “down a step”, this means the salary is increased based on a teacher’s years of experience. The second is column movement, in which a teacher’s salary is increased because they have earned an advance degree or hours that count towards an advanced degree.

Sieck explained that this means teachers essentially lose all credit for a year of their teaching career.

“If I was a teacher with seven years experience, rather than go to and moving to the eighth year step, I would be frozen at seven,” Sieck said. “And you lose that step for all time. Next year, if I had nine years of experience if they didn’t freeze steps, I’d still only be at eight. So you lose that year forever.”

In the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), teachers’ retirement benefits are based partly on their salaries over their entire careers, so frozen salaries are a long-term lose as well. Raises for teachers and building administrators are the same, so when last year teachers didn’t get a raise, building administrators did not either.

Dr. Krawitz recalled that although the salary freeze was clearly upsetting for teachers, he saw teachers being reasonable and measured in their reactions.

“Overall, teachers did a pretty good job of understanding the circumstances, that’s not to be said that obviously not receiving a raise of any sort creates lots of issues,” Dr. Krawitz said. “People were disappointed, but they understood what the circumstances were. It wasn’t a circumstance that was created by the school district itself, but rather the lack of funds coming to the district because of the financial issues that had developed. “

Sieck anticipates that the contracts’ wil be finalized by the end of this school year and ready to sign in the fall.

Although the harm to teachers is the most identifiable problem caused by salary freezes, Sieck points out that the district also loses when teachers are stuck at one constant pay.

“Frozen salaries over time are not really a win-win for either side,” Sieck said.  “It’s hard to attract new teachers to the district, it’s hard to retain quality teachers, especially younger teachers who can go somewhere else and earn a higher income.