The Platteville School Board Monday night approved pay raises for Platteville’s teachers and support staff.
Teachers will get base-salary increases of $750 per “cell” on the school district’s two salary tables, totaling 1.39 percent of base pay. Depending on where the teacher is in the salary structure, pay increases will range from $750 to $2,500. The increases total 2.76 percent of pay and 4.21 percent of compensation including employee benefits.
Support staff will get pay increases of 2 to 3 percent based on the recommendation of school administrators.
Teacher and support staff pay represent the new world of Wisconsin schools since public employee collective bargaining was restricted by the Legislature in 2011.
School superintendent Connie Valenza said both the Platteville Education Association, the union that represents teachers, and Platteville Educational Support Professionals, the union that represents support staff, had voted to decertify.
“We still have the ability to consult and confer with them,” said Valenza. “It is not a process of negotiation. It’s a process of consulting and conferring. The board is not obligated to recognize them, nor is it obligated to consult with them.”
Valenza compared salary-setting to the process that created the school district employee handbook, which replaced the contracts with PEA and PSEP in 2012.
“We certainly opened the door to listen to them and hear their requests, and the board made decisions based on their input” in creating the employee handbooks, she said.
Platteville teachers are paid on two salary schedules. The old schedule increases pay based on years in service and post-graduation credits. The new schedule increases pay for receiving a master’s degree and national board certification.
According to the state Department of Public Instruction, in the 2012–13 school year teacher salaries in the Platteville school district ranged from $37,802 to $66,551. The average full-time teacher salary was $55,229, which was about $3,700 less than the 2011–12 school year.
The average teacher experience last school year was 17.3 years in education and 13.9 years in the school district. Both numbers were nearly four years less than one year ago.
According to DPI, the average teacher salary in Wisconsin was $49,739, with average teacher experience 14.3 years in education and 12 years in the teacher’s current school district.
