It is an often-implied premise that the more classroom time a teacher has, the better educator he/she will become. Experience, it seems, still is looked upon as one of the more important factors in deciding a teacher’s salary.
Back in 2011, in order to remain competitive, School District management set a goal of paying its most experienced teachers within the median salary of what other L.A. County unified school districts were paying their teachers with 25 years’ experience.
Yet, the School District stops paying its annual percentage of step-&-column increases (from 3 percent to 4.1 percent) after the 10th year of employment. After which, starting at their 11th year of teaching, the District continues to pay its most experienced teachers only a small increase each year of $600 in Column IV, up to Step 14 and $750 annually in Column V, up to Step 23.
Apples-To-Apples
This spreadsheet (No. 1 attached) shows that not all school districts have the same number of steps and columns in their salary programs. Many go well beyond the 23 steps of the School District salary program–a few have 40 year-steps or more.
Of course, most educators would agree that a teacher with more classroom experience should be paid more than one with less time in the classroom. This is the reason our maximum salaries look so far below the median salary when compared with other school districts with more steps in their schedules.
With that in mind, I decided to make a spreadsheet to show a true “Apples-to-Apples” comparison among the 47 unified school districts in L.A. County. I compared what the other districts pay in their salary schedules with Culver City’s highest salary at Step 23.
I found that Culver City was very well situated within the median salary being paid by the other County school districts—being just $77 shy.
Goal Reached
The previous spreadsheet shows that in 2014-15, after years of continued raises–totaling over 15 percent–the District had reached its goal. During this same time, some teachers who remained within the Step and Column program received close to 40 percent gains on their salaries.
Yet, after meeting its goal, the School Board still agreed to give all teachers another 5 percent in 2015-16 and an additional 6 percent raise in 2016-17; thereby, pushing local teachers’ accumulated annual raises to over 25%
Above and Beyond
This school year, if the School District’s salary schedule were to be theoretically extended with a 24th, 25th and 26th step, to match the L.A. County J-90 salary survey criteria of 25 years’ experience, it shows that our most experienced teachers–those with 25-plus years’ experience–would be paid at a rate of over $101,000 a year. So our most experienced teachers’ salaries are now well beyond the District’s original goal and shot their salaries into the top quartile of salaries in L.A. County, well beyond its original, published goal.
Maybe it is time that the public ask our Board members, “What happened?”
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com