New school contract grants 4% raise
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Teachers, administrators, and other employees of the Hillsboro school district will all get raises next year — but they won't all get the same amount.
That's according to the new USD 410 master contract, which was approved by the board of education last Thursday, May 30, in a special board meeting.
The new USD 410 master contract raises the district's salary budget by four percent overall. The salary budget covers all district employees, including teachers, administrators, and classified staff such as custodians and secretaries.
Last year, the district allocated $2,135,104 to pay for staff salaries. In the 2002-03 school year, they plan to spend $2,220,631.
Here's how the increases pan out:
— Each staffer working at least part-time will receive $300 per month in basic insurance coverage. That's an increase of $22, from $278 last year.
— The base salary for teachers with no experience will increase by $450, from $25,800 to $26,250.
— Two "steps" and one "column" were added to the chart that determines the salaries of certified teachers.
The chart works like this:
When a teacher joins the Hillsboro school district, his or her rate of pay is based on two factors: one, how many years he's been teaching, and two, how much education he has. In this chart, the more education a teacher has, the more he or she gets paid.
According to last year's salary chart, a teacher with just a bachelor's degree and no extra hours of education can teach for four years in the system before reaching a salary plateau, where his salary can't get any higher.
The new chart in the master contract adds two years to the previous four — that way, the teacher can work for six years before hitting a salary plateau.
Salaries also increase as teachers gain additional hours of education beyond their degrees. The "columns" in last year's contract reflect this, with columns of bachelor's plus ten hours, bachelor's plus 20 hours, all the way up to bachelor's plus 40 hours.
The new contracts adds an additional column: bachelor's plus 50 hours.
Each year, as teachers move up one step, their salary generally increases by $405 dollars.
The highest paid teachers in the district are those who've earned their master's degree and they have 30 hours of additional education. That's the top column.
The top earners in the district are HHS counselor Diana Holub and HHS band instructor Gregg Walker. Both have the maximum amount of columns and steps that were available last year, and both work additional days beyond the normal school year.
Also at the board meeting, board members voted unanimously to hire Hillsboro native Dustin Dalke as the new high school art teacher.
Dalke graduated from HHS and Fort Hays State. He is the son of current HHS secretary Donna Dalke.
The decision to hire Dalke came after the board spent almost 90 minutes in executive session.
By hiring two teachers just out of college, the district will save just over $24,000 next year.
By replacing former vo-ag teacher Kristi Esquibel with new vo-ag teacher Tim Kilgore, the district saves $16,658. By replacing former art teacher Martha Roach with new instructor Dalke, the district saves $7,680.
USD 410 also saved salary money by reducing the position of part-time middle school instructor Julie Harber, eliminating the third-grade teaching position of Cecilia Skiles, and also eliminating the tech facilitator positions.
