LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Jefferson County Board of Education approved Tuesday an agreement with the Jefferson County Teachers Association to boost pay for teachers, particularly those who work in some of the district’s neediest schools.

The school board voted 6-0 to approve the agreement as part of the meeting’s consent calendar.

JCTA members have until Wednesday to ratify the agreement, which calls for a 4% salary increase for teachers starting July 1, continuity bonuses worth $1,000 in the 2022-23 school year and extra pay starting at $8,000 annually for educators who work in schools inside the Jefferson County Public Schools’ new choice zone and accelerated improvement schools starting in the 2023-24 school year.

JCTA Vice President Tammy Berlin said the teachers union’s board “overwhelmingly” voted to recommend the plan to its members.

“We hope that it will pass because it’s the largest salary increase that teachers in this district have had in 15 years,” Berlin said. “We realize it’s not everything that teachers deserve or that they need, but it’s a big step in the right direction toward helping JCPS recruit and retain excellent staff to work with our kids.”

The district’s new choice zone, which encompasses neighborhoods in and near Louisville’s west end and central business district, is an integral part of a comprehensive student assignment overhaul passed unanimously by the board June 1. Families living in those neighborhoods will choose between a new west Louisville middle school and the Academy @ Shawnee or another pairing of middle and high schools based on their addresses for their children.

Superintendent Marty Pollio has said increased pay for teachers at schools inside the choice zone will be an important factor to attracting teachers. Those schools would also get a share of $12 million investments from JCPS for supports and resources like smaller class sizes, more mental health counselors and afterschool learning opportunities.

Teachers working in the choice zone schools and accelerated improvement schools, referred to as “enhanced support schools” in the district’s agreement with JCTA, would get stipends worth $8,000 during the 2023-24 school year.

Each year a teacher continues to work in an enhanced support school, their stipend would increase by 1.5% until their 20th year in such schools. The agreement calls for the stipend to remain flat at that point until they hit their 25th year in enhanced support schools, when their stipend would hit $14,000 per year.

Teachers who leave enhanced support schools would lose their stipends, and those who exit voluntarily would have their stipend levels reset if they return to enhanced support schools, according to the agreement. Teachers who involuntarily leave enhanced support schools can return to the same stipend level if they return, the agreement says.

Pollio believes the extra pay will help schools with the highest needs retain staff. The “foundation” of school improvement is an effective principal and a staff of teachers with varied experience levels, particularly veteran teachers who “stay year after year and have a hunger to do the work in high-need schools.”

“I think turnover all too often leads to challenges for principals to have to start over again every year, so the real goal I think we will see is higher retention rates at our high-poverty schools, which is extremely important,” Pollio said.

Continuing to provide pay raises for teachers, however, will require support from lawmakers in Frankfort when they dole out funding for schools, Pollio said. Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass “did a wonderful job framing the problem” facing school districts as they grapple with teacher shortages now and in the future during an interim legislative hearing Tuesday, he said.

“I'm worried overall for all teachers in all counties all across the commonwealth and all across the nation,” Pollio said. “I’m really concerned about the future of education when it comes to staffing in our classrooms long-term.”

JCPS also agreed to work on reducing the need for enhanced support school teachers to fill in for absences and vacancies and to provide mental health supports to staff in those schools, according to the agreement.

The $1,000 continuity bonus will be paid in $500 installments on Nov. 25 and May 26, the agreement says.

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