{"id":41267,"date":"2022-04-07T22:33:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T04:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-schools-make-pay-strides\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:59:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:59:51","slug":"montezuma-cortez-schools-make-pay-strides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-schools-make-pay-strides\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez schools make pay strides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=344fb5ac-448f-4c8e-9af7-4a8cc243e572&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1389\" alt=\"Pencils are at the ready on a teacher\u2019s desk at Bruns Academy in Charlotte, N.C., on July 24, 2017. Nearly all public school teachers report digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies, spending nearly $480 a year, far more than the federal $250 tax deduction available to teachers, according to a study by the National Center of Education Statistics released Tuesday.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Pencils are at the ready on a teacher\u2019s desk at Bruns Academy in Charlotte, N.C., on July 24, 2017. Nearly all public school teachers report digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies, spending nearly $480 a year, far more than the federal $250 tax deduction available to teachers, according to a study by the National Center of Education Statistics released Tuesday.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Davie Hinshaw\/The Charlotte Observer via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Montezuma-Cortez Board of Education discussed proposed salary schedules Tuesday that would boost pay for district staff in the 2022-2023 school year.<\/p>\n<p>And while district staff generally would work the same total hours, they would work fewer days because of the new four-day calendar.<\/p>\n<p>No employee would experience a dip in pay with the suggested salary schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, if approved by the board, would retain and attract new talent to the school district, said Kyle Archibeque, executive director of finance.<\/p>\n<p>Archibeque presented the revised salaries to the board. He and the district\u2019s other executive directors, Cynthia Eldredge and Jim Parr, developed the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Interim Superintendent Tom Burris provided some insight into the pay initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, beginning teachers in Cortez start at a base salary of $31,557. The district proposes to bump that number up to $36,000 \u2013 a $4,443, or 14%, increase.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/0VWQy9cfPoN0HOwISUISiZASqco.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/0VWQy9cfPoN0HOwISUISiZASqco.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Proposed teacher salary schedule.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/0VWQy9cfPoN0HOwISUISiZASqco.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Proposed teacher salary schedule.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A second salary tier was suggested to give \u201cmaxed-out\u201d teachers a raise. The district proposes to add another each year.<\/p>\n<p>The gradual addition of pay steps would help keep the district from \u201chiring somebody that gets paid more than somebody already in the district,\u201d Burris said.<\/p>\n<p>Although adding pay grades is a \u201clong-term project,\u201c Burris said, the district eventually could attract teachers with decades of experience.<\/p>\n<p>Expanding the number of pay tiers would help make the district competitive with others. Many districts have nine pay tiers for teachers with a bachelor\u2019s degree, while the Montezuma-Cortez district had 10 this year and proposes 11 at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, said board Director Layne Frazier.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">Examples of other proposed shifts<\/div>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-x-im-unordered-list\">Transportation technicians: $36,000 base salary, up from $31,565, a 14%  increase. Bus drivers: $17 per hour, up from $13.63, a 25% increase. Bus aides: $13.97 per hour, up from $12.75, a 10% increase. Cooks and carryout workers: $13.97 per hour, up from $12.75, a 10% increase. Kitchen managers: $15.75 per hour, up from $13.91, a 13% increase. Paraprofessionals: $17,500 base salary, up from $15,975, a 10% increase.Custodians $29,150 salary, up from $26,621, a 10% increase. Elementary school principal: $66,000, up from $60,995, an 8% increase. Middle school principal: $72,000, up from $68,351, a 5% base salary increase. High school principal: $75,000, up from $69,609, an 8% increase. Assistant superintendent: $90,000, up from $82,265, a 9% increase. <\/div>\n<p>Board Director Sherri Wright said she supported a $40,000 base salary for teachers, but understood the district was doing what it could to elevate pay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just so excited though,\u201d board President Sheri Noyes said. \u201cI knew we could do it somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salary schedules for coaches will be discussed later.<\/p>\n<p>The full proposed salary schedule can be viewed on the district\u2019s website under the <a href=\"\/\/\/Users\/kparkinson\/Downloads\/04.05.2022%20Board%20Packet%20Drafts%20&amp;Copies.pdf\" id=\"link-c43ca56e7b18b4da201f887b28d9b95d\" target=\"_blank\">April 5 board meeting packet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Archibeque framed the salary schedule with the district\u2019s competitors in mind: the Archuleta, Montrose, Durango, Bayfield, Ignacio, Delta, Dolores, Mancos, Silverton and Dove Creek School districts.<\/p>\n<p>Discussions about pay have come to the forefront of recent school board discussions in several districts.<\/p>\n<p>In New Mexico, the minimum starting salary for teachers recently was bumped to $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>Dolores School District RE-4A Superintendent Reece Blincoe previously said he is aiming to raise salary for a starting teacher to $40,000 within the next few years. The starting salary in the district is currently about $32,500.<\/p>\n<p>The Mancos School District RE-6 Board of Education began discussing salary schedules during a meeting Feb. 14. Superintendent Todd Cordrey said conversations about salary increases likely would begin in May.<\/p>\n<p>The current base salary for a beginning teacher in Mancos is $32,640.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proposed salary schedule would give significant pay increases amid shorter four-day weeks <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,167,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84909,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41267\/revisions\/84909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41267"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}