The Carroll Community School District (CCSD) is discussing different avenues they can take if House Bill 542 should pass legislation, increasing the minimum for teacher salaries. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced her proposal to raise the minimum teacher salary to $50,000, and teachers with 12 plus years of experience to $62,000 earlier this year. The CCSD worked through different scenarios to follow the requirements of the proposed legislation. One option the district is considering is increasing the wages to the minimum as required but not adjusting other teachers’ salaries. The district would need to spend an additional $345,320 to get 49 teachers to the $50k base and 23 experienced teachers to $62k. Other explored options include increasing all teacher salaries to the minimum and the remaining salaries be increased by a set percentage. The current starting pay for first-year teachers at CCSD is $45,545, which would require a 12.25% increase to Reynold’s proposed minimum. If the CCSD increased all teachers’ income by the same 12.25%, it would cost the district $1,122,526 per year in pay increases. The last option considered would be getting the proposed salaries to the minimum, then increasing the remaining teachers’ income by 2.5%. Following that guideline, the 127 teachers employed at CCSD would cost $467,745 more annually. No action was taken on this, as the proposed bill is still being discussed in the House and has been tabled on Feb 1. CCSD is just looking ahead in case the legislation is signed into law.
