The Board of Education unanimously voted to request an additional $3.75 million in funding from the Wake County Commissioners that has been reserved for teacher supplemental pay.
County commissioners made the offer back during budget negotiations as a local effort to boost teacher pay.
That the Board of Education voted to request the funding is no surprise. What is surprising is a potential effort to differentiate how those funds go to teachers in Wake.
Chief Finance Officer David Neter and multiple school board members noted an interest in addressing the differences in raises experienced by Wake teachers. As has been much discussed, and seems to be the focus of every other NC political advertisement in your mailbox or on your television, this year saw a change in the teacher pay schedule as well as a significant pay raise for many teachers. The pay schedule was changed to a model that provides a raise every five years rather than every year, and the highest raises were provided to those teachers early in their careers. The concern of Neter and several board members is that many of Wake’s most experienced teachers received very little in the way of a pay increase.
If it moves forward, the effort would provide higher supplemental salary increases to those teachers who saw the least increase in yearly salary. How much of an additional increase might they see? That depends on how many ways a $3.75 million pie can be divided.
