By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School Board members are making moves designed not just to attract new teachers to the district, but to retain veterans of the classroom.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations, Gabe Edgar, says the district has too high a turnover rate.
“As far as turnover is concerned, I don’t think there’s any real positive, because consistency in the classroom with the kids and consistency in the operations department, the custodial department, it doesn’t make any difference,” Edgar tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “The buildings are going to be cleaner if that person has been there for more years, right? And the kids are going to be more educated when they have a consistent education that’s offered to them every single day.”
The school board has approved raising the minimum teacher salary by $500 to $37,700. Substitute teachers will be paid $115 a day, up from $95 a day.
The board also is looking down the road a bit, trying to consider how best to handle a tax levy set to expire in a couple of years.
Edgar says it would be easier for the administration to plan if the levy didn’t contain a sunset clause.
“But I understand why the sunset’s there and hopefully someday the trust of the community will come back to where we can eliminate that sunset,” Edgar says. “But we have to deal with it right now. It is what it is. I think we’re looking at possibly maybe trying to bump that sunset from five years to six years or five years to seven years.”
The 61-cent levy has an April 2024 sunset.
The St. Joseph School District operates on a $140 million annual budget, with around $85 million devoted to salaries.
A special committee of school board members and community residents will be meeting in the next few weeks about the issue and will recommend a strategy for the school board.