An increase to the base pay for USD 253 staff is coming following approval by school board members Wednesday.
The board unanimously approved the master contract for certified staff and salary packages for all staff members during their regular meeting. The approval follows the Kansas Legislatures increase of state aid per pupil from $4,165 to $4,436 for the 2019-2020 academic year. The approved salary package now brings the district’s base pay to $40,000.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations Rob Scheib tells KVOE News this will help keep USD 253 competitive with other districts. He hopes this will also help to address the teacher shortage which has been noticed the past several years.
Scheib adds he is hopeful the increases will help attract additional staff — other than just educators — to the district as well.
Scheib took time to also praise the Interest Based Bargaining team for their work in this process. Scheib believes the utilization of interest based bargaining as opposed to traditional head to head bargaining is a major factor for the increases.
In other business, the board received an update on the district’s $78 million bond election. The district is currently in the process of finalizing informational materials for district patrons. This includes an informational slide deck, a frequently asked questions document, informational flyers for enrollment packages and other materials.
USD 253 will begin their informational town hall meetings Thursday at noon inside the Walnut Elementary Gymnasium. This will be the first of four town halls to help answer questions and provide clarification regarding the upcoming bond election for district facility improvements in September.
In addition to these items, the board also approved a resolution for the Kansas Municipal Investment Pool and 2020 agreements for school nutrition programs. A presentation from the ESU Trios program along with discussions on the board’s officer election process also took place.
The next USD 253 Board of Education meeting will be held on July 10 at 7 pm inside the Mary Herbert Education Center.
