PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
(WTAQ-WLUK) — It’s the first day of September, meaning it’s back to school for many districts across the state.
While students reminisce about summer vacation, teachers in some Northeast Wisconsin districts are looking forward to bigger paychecks.
A handful of school districts in the region are raising teacher pay.
“As we talk to our community, our staff, our families, our board of education and administration, hiring quality staff is of the upmost importance to the student success,” said Julie King, chief human resources officer for the Appleton Area School District.
AASD educators will receive increases of 6.47%.
“That includes level movement, some of our educators retaining master’s degrees,” said King.
One of the reasons for the pay increase is inflation.
“As well as surrounding districts maintaining competitiveness with our surrounding districts, those are key factors to retain our staff,” said King.
In Green Bay, staff will receive 8% pay hikes.
Board member, Bryan Milz, says inflation is also a reason for increases at Green Bay schools.
“While these are listed as salary increase, these are cost-of-living adjustments and ever since Act 10, we’ve had a limit on what we can offer our staff based on the rate of inflation,” said Milz during a board meeting on Monday.
Act 10 was passed in 2011 by then Governor Scott Walker. It stripped most public employees, including teachers, of most of the their collective bargaining rights.
Based on inflation, the 8% wage increase is the maximum percent allowed by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission for this upcoming school year.
“This may seem like a significant amount but once again this is the cost-of-living adjustment that is the most that we are able to under law,” said Milz.
In Oshkosh, the school board approved a 4.3% increase for teachers at a meeting in May.
Neenah’s Board of Education allocated a 4% increase in overall staffing pay for 2023-24 school year. But that doesn’t mean every staff member gets a 4% raise. Rather, the overall pool of dollars has increased by 4%.
“Some staff members will get higher than that and some will get lower, based on performance,” said the Neenah Joint School District in a statement. “Additionally, every staff member will get another increase if the District as a whole exceeds expectations on the state report card that is released in November.”
Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh and Neenah school districts are still looking to hire positions for the new school year.
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