Scoreboards, parking and career counseling for CHS students were on the agenda for the Centralia School Board the evening of May 9 at the Centralia Intermediate School Library.
There was also some discussion of finances.
Steven Chancellor, Centralia R-VI’s superintendent of schools said they were in a unique time of the year.
“We are at the time of the year where we are not changing much and slowing down expenditures to wrap up the school year. We are about 30 days away from starting to make expenditures from next year’s budget.”
R-VI Superintendent Steven Chancellor discusses the Missouri Legislature’s action on teacher salaries with members of the CTA.
The board, all of who attended, dealt with two resignations. Megan Jones, sixth-grade language arts, is moving to another district. They also dealt with Christie Morgan, who resigned as a middle school track and field coach and moved laterally to become one of the district’s cheerleading coaches.
Parking came up when Chancellor discussed a notification he had received from Centralia City Hall regarding dust coming off one of Centralia Intermediate School’s parking lots. “The city approached the district regarding its dust-free ordinance and asked us about paving the CIS parking lot.”
No action was taken.
The board members visited about two of the district’s scoreboards, the video-
enabled one at CHS’ football field and the one on the south side of CHS’ Jim Enlow Court.
The outdoor board is experiencing multiple failures, Chancellor said and they are negotiating remedies with the company that installed it, Dektronics.
The indoor scoreboard, he said, has a malfunction which is causing replacement parts to short out, Chancellor said, and the district is soliciting bids from two firms for the repair.
“Our big fear is a malfunction for which we cannot get replacement parts and have to cancel or move a major event,” Chancellor said. “We do not want a major disruption of service.”
Regarding major events, some might consider the board’s voting to accept a grant from the RooTED Alliance as significant.
Chancellor said the grant, expected to equal a teacher’s salary, will fund a career counselor who will work one-on-one with CHS students solely on career planning and building their high school schedules to support those plans.
“I am really excited about this,” he said. “This has the potential to expand our internship and job-shadowing programs, it also meshes and mirrors with some aspects of our strategic plan.”
In other business, they approved a change order regarding the installation of new air-intakes to supply HVAC to the CHS gym. Chancellor said the change would enable the installation without moving banners or scoreboards.
They also approved a contract for Paragon to begin work on CES’s new playground as well as the first of the CHS projects.
Then Chancellor discussed recent education-related legislation, which he said will cost the district.
As part of this year’s state budget, the state’s public school teachers are in a line item recommending their minimum pay be set at $38,000 annually.
Chancellor said R-VI’s current starting pay for new teachers is $34,600. He said stipends and other extra-duty payments are not counted by the state in evaluating salaries.
Furthermore, he said the state, will pay 70 percent of the difference between what a district pays and the state-mandated starting salary.
Chancellor said the individual school districts must pay the rest.
Currently this will apply to 21 Centralia R-VI teachers, costing the district 71,400 annually, not including the commensurate change in benefits.
“The state will only say they are reimbursing us for the first year,” he said, “the budget does not say where the money comes from after that.”
While Chancellor said he applauded the idea of paying teachers more, he said he was concerned about unintended consequences resulting from the necessary budget changes the law will require.
“This will not bankrupt Centralia R-VI,” he said. “But it will force us to step back and reexamine our budget and re-prioritize next year’s expenditures. Other districts may be in more difficult situations.”
District 44 Rep. Cheri Toalson-Reisch offered this statement on the situation.
“The State passed House Budget Bill 2 which relates to Education funding. The Statute did NOT change the $25,000 minimum pay for teachers. HB 2 provides an OPTIONAL grant program to schools that the State will pay 70 percent of the costs and schools pay 30 percent for teachers that make less than $38,000. Schools can also utilize the 70 percent grant to pay teachers up to $32,000 or $34,000. I understand that this can put a financial burden on some Districts but will give them flexibility on what best suits their budgets.”
On May 16, Chancellor discussed the topic at a CTA meeting at Centralia Intermediate School. He said though the teachers’ raise is promoted as a suggestion, not a mandate, he has heard suggestions that districts that do not participate will possibly face funding-repercussion through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “Just know that if you don’t there will be consequences. We just don’t know what those are.
Chancellor stressed the Legislature’s action is not a law change. “The state’s minimum salary for teachers is still $25,000. This is a budget appropriation.”
Which means, he said, the state has set aside as much as $28 million to pay their part of the suggested increase. The state is also calling it a grant, which he said means it is something district’s must apply for, if they want the state’s 70 percent reimbursement.
That grant, he said, is the state’s mechanism to enable school districts to make their starting, step-one, teachers’ salaries $38,000 a year. “And any other salary on the salary schedule that does not meet that, they’ve got to fix it. The grant is for the difference between $38,000 and whatever your base salary is. The state will reimburse 70 percent of that. And we’re supposed to pick up the 30 percent, plus benefits.”
Responding to CTA Vice President Andrew Lewis, Chancellor said perhaps a third of Missouri’s school districts were already at the $38,000 minimum. “We are not in a bad place financially, but there are districts paying in the $28,000 range that are really scrambling.”
He reiterated the proposed 70 percent contribution from the state is closer to 40 when a district’s benefits are included. “It becomes more of a 60-40 split.”
Besides discussing with CTA members the unintended consequences such as salary compression and “we really don’t know where the money comes from… Here is the biggest problem. Because it is a budget item, the budget doesn’t get approved until the end of May or mid-June. It is supposed to go into effect July 1. Anyone who gets effected by the $38,000, if we do not have something in place before July 1, here’s the problem. If you work one day under an old salary schedule, under these new guidelines and we pay you the difference after July 1, that’s considered a bonus. And as you all know bonuses are not legal mechanisms to pay salaries. So not only would we get ourselves in trouble, our employees could get in trouble.”
Additionally, he said, because the salary action is a budget appropriation, not a law, nobody knows if it it, the money supporting the minimum salary, will be there for next year’s school district budgets. “It’s a possibility this is just a one-year thing… This is there because Governor Parson wants it. He has two more years, so common sense would tell you it won’t get vetoed for those two years… But the house budget chair said very clearly this is a one-time action.”
Chancellor said the board is considering making the difference between what the district pays and what the state wants them to pay, “a 13th paycheck,” which would make it easier for teachers to understand the possible temporary nature of the raise and prevent people from planning there financial futures around something the state could eliminate at any moment.
“We appreciate Dr. Chancellor taking the time to visit with us today. Throughout his presentation it was clear that what sounds like something simple, the Missouri legislature making $38 million available to schools, is much more complicated than it sounds. What is clear is that Dr Chancellor has been working hard to do what’s best for the Centralia R-VI.”
Chancellor stressed the Legislature’s action is not a law change. “The state’s minimum salary for teachers is still $25,000. This is a budget appropriation.”
Which means, he said, the state has set aside as much as $28 million to pay their part of the suggested increase. The state is also calling it a grant, which he said means it is something district’s must apply for, if they want the state’s 70 percent reimbursement.
That grant, he said, is the state’s mechanism to enable school districts to make their starting, step-one, teachers’ salaries $38,000 a year. “And any other salary on the salary schedule that does not meet that, they’ve got to fix it. The grant is for the difference between $38,000 and whatever your base salary is. The state will reimburse 70 percent of that. And we’re supposed to pick up the 30 percent, plus benefits.”
Responding to CTA Vice President Andrew Lewis, Chancellor said perhaps a third of Missouri’s school districts were already at the $38,000 minimum. “We are not in a bad place financially, but there are districts paying in the $28,000 range that are really scrambling.”
He reiterated the proposed 70 percent contribution from the state is closer to 40 when a district’s benefits are included. “It becomes more of a 60-40 split.”
Besides discussing with CTA members the unintended consequences such as salary compression and “we really don’t know where the money comes from… Here is the biggest problem. Because it is a budget item, the budget doesn’t get approved until the end of May or mid-June. It is supposed to go into effect July 1. Anyone who gets effected by the $38,000, if we do not have something in place before July 1, here’s the problem. If you work one day under an old salary schedule, under these new guidelines and we pay you the difference after July 1, that’s considered a bonus. And as you all know bonuses are not legal mechanisms to pay salaries. So not only would we get ourselves in trouble, our employees could get in trouble.”
“We appreciate Dr. Chancellor taking the time to visit with us today. Throughout his presentation it was clear that what sounds like something simple, the Missouri legislature making $38 million available to schools, is much more complicated than it sounds. What is clear is that Dr Chancellor has been working hard to do what’s best for the Centralia R6 School district and Centralia teachers and support staff and for that I am very appreciative,” Andrew Reynolds, incoming CTA president said after the presentation.
School district and Centralia teachers and support staff and for that I am very appreciative,” Andrew Reynolds, incoming CTA president said after the presentation.
