{"id":93851,"date":"2019-05-22T16:17:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T22:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-school-board-approves-raises\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:17:42","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T22:17:42","slug":"dolores-school-board-approves-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-school-board-approves-raises\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores school board approves raises"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dolores
Dolores Superintendent Phil Kasper proposed staff raises at a recent school board meeting. The proposal was unanimously approved by the school board.<\/span>Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Dolores school board recently approved salary increases for all certified and classified staff members.<\/p>\n

The move includes increases in certified and classified salary tables, and will be paid as an annual increases. In addition, certified staff members will receive a one-time bump of $1,200.<\/p>\n

At the May 9 meeting, Superintendent Phil Kasper told board members salary increases are necessary for Dolores School District RE-4A<\/a> to attract and retain good teachers and staff members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this proposal, we can stay competitive with Mancos, Cortez, and Dove Creek,\u201d Kasper said.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the proposal would have the district pay the full amount of health insurance premium increases, raise classified staff salaries by 90 cents per hour, increase certified staff salaries by 1.75%, and give a one-time raise of $1,200 to certified staff members.<\/p>\n

No increase was included for extra-duty and coaching salaries or for current stipend amounts. Kasper also included in his calculations the dollars associated with step increases and decreases accompanying staff members\u2019 promotions or departures.<\/p>\n

On an individual level, a first-year classified staff member working a 168-day calendar would see a salary increase of $1,134, or a 7.75% increase.<\/p>\n

A teacher completing his or her first year would see a total salary increase of $2,250.00, or about 7.15%. A breakdown of the first-year teacher\u2019s salary increase would provide for:<\/p>\n

An additional $550 from the 1.75% salary table bump (moving annual salary from $31,500 to $32,050).<\/em>An extra $500 from moving up a step on the salary schedule.<\/em>And a $1,200 returning contract stipend bonus.<\/em>The total cost of the raises to the district will be $344,607.<\/p>\n

The salary increases will be paid by $167,364 from the state\u2019s per pupil revenue funding, $85,243 from the state\u2019s Small Rural School Fund, and $92,000 \u2013 the cost of the 14.9% health insurance premium increase \u2013 from the district\u2019s carry-forward budget surplus revenues.<\/p>\n

Kasper said the only financial risk would be that the district might not meet the projected student enrollment count, which would lower how much state funding RE-4A receives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe district has lost a significant number of students over the past four to five years,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he pointed to this year\u2019s enrollment count, which saw an additional six students since the October count \u2013 an improvement, and hopefully a sign that the district had stopped the \u201cslide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasper said the district has not yet had to worry about competing with Durango public school salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut within your teacher ranks, it is well-known that all you have to do is drive 50 miles and you can get a $10,000 raise,\u201d Kasper noted.<\/p>\n

Health insurance premiums have gone up significantly this year for schools throughout the area, district officials said. For now, the district is sticking with its current plan, and \u201ccrossing fingers\u201d that next year\u2019s rates will not rise, Kasper said.<\/p>\n

If they do increase in the future, RE-4A will have to go out to bid for a new insurance provider.<\/p>\n

Dolores board members voted unanimously for the raises.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not competitive, the ripple effect is pretty grim,\u201d said Board President Kay Phelps. \u201cBecause you lose quality teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

increases key to teacher retention, superintendent says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[44,103,155],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-93851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-schools-re-4a","tag-education"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93851","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=93851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93851"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=93851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}