Lee’s Summit teachers, staff to get raises after ballot measure. See how much
Lee’s Summit School District teachers and staff are set to receive raises for the upcoming school year approved by both district voters in Tuesday’s election and school board members Thursday.
The district has estimated that the annual cost of the slate of salary increases for its roughly 2,800 employees is $4 million.
School board members voted to implement the pay bumps at a special meeting Thursday, scheduled after Tuesday’s vote on the district’s ballot measure, which was pitched as a way to raise district employee pay. Unofficial election results from Jackson County, Cass County and Kansas City showed around 60% of votes cast in favor of the measure.
Board members signed off on a $975 base salary increase, a roughly 2.21% jump, for teachers, as well as equivalent 2.21% base salary increases for support, professional and administrative staff.
Salary schedules will jump by the following amounts, according to the district:
- Teachers: average of 4.27%, with a range of 2.13% to 5.27%
- Professional staff: average of 3.92%, with a range of 3.19% to 5.28%
- Support staff: average of 4.14%, with a range of 2.87% to 4.31%
- Administrative staff: average of 4.07%, with a range of 3.04% to 4.25%
In pitching the ballot measure to voters, the district said its starting teacher salary of around $44,200 ranked 13th out of 22 Kansas City-area school districts. The new starting figure, around $45,200 a year, would bring Lee’s Summit to 10th on a list of teacher pay in the metro.
School board members voted 6-1 to adopt a proposal crafted by TEAM LS, a district committee with members representing teachers, administrators, support and professional staff and the school board. A district spokeswoman said the proposal was distributed to all staff members and the board in early March.
Superintendent David Buck endorsed the proposal but noted that pay for district employees has not kept up with inflation in recent years.
“Our current schedules were created and implemented in the 2012-2013 school year,” he said. “Since that time, inflation has increased by approximately 41% to date. Our schedules have not kept up with that inflation.”
“While Team Lee’s Summit’s recommendation ensures that all schedules are above inflation for this one year, I want to acknowledge that all schedules are still behind inflation when compared to when the schedules were implemented in the ‘12-‘13 school year,” he said.
Board members Bill Haley and Regina Garrett voiced opposition to the proposal Thursday night and suggested more money should go to teachers and principals. Haley ultimately was the lone no vote, while Garrett voted in favor.
“I don’t want to stonewall and not allow teachers to get their crumbs, in my opinion,” Garrett said. “I’ll go ahead and vote yes, but I feel like it should be more for teachers and staff and principals and assistant principals.”
Buck pushed back on the suggestion, saying that the district had promoted the ballot measure as a way to boost pay for all staff.
“We have 2,800 people who take care of important things, and we need them all,” he said.
Board member Nicky Nickens, who served on the TEAM LS committee, said the group did extensive pay research and sought to avoid wage compression that would remove incentives for employees to take on additional responsibilities and move into higher-level roles.
“You can’t just fix one thing,” she said. “Everything has a ripple effect. Everything has a ripple effect. We looked at it upside down, inside out, sideways.”
The ballot measure related to Proposition C, a 1% statewide sales tax approved by voters in 1982 that generates education funding. Districts are required to roll back their local tax levy proportionally to the amount they receive from that funding unless voters approve districts keeping the additional money. The district had operated under a partial waiver that was approved in 2008.
The ballot measure approved by voters Tuesday asked for a full waiver of an operating tax rollback, which would generate the additional revenue for the pay increases. The district said the measure would cost a homeowner around $23.90 more each year for each $100,000 of home value.
