Several localities including Williamsburg, James City County, York County, Hampton and Newport News are looking to raise their teachers’ salaries for the 2019-2020 school year.
Public school teachers, staff and other school district employees work about half the year which translates to about 192 days per year or a little more than 27 weeks. Teachers also get the summers off.
RELATED STORY: Here’s what some teachers do during the summer months
WYDaily compiled a list below of the proposed budget pay increases for 2019-2020 and the 2018-2019 base level salaries for teachers with a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Williamsburg-James City County
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Proposed pay increase: 4 percent
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Bachelor’s: $43,000
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Master’s: $44,500
Superintendent Olwen Herron wants $3.8 million to provide more money to school employees, an overall 4 percent salary increase. Read the full proposal here.
“If we are to attract and retain the best employees from teachers to bus drivers, we must compensate our employees fairly,” he said at a school board meeting on Feb. 19.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for March 19.
York County
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Proposed pay increase: 4 percent
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Bachelor’s: $42,942
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Master’s: $45,811
In York County, the York County School Division reviews teacher pay plans every few years, switching off between licensed and non-licensed teachers. Three or four years ago, licensed teachers received an approximately 3 percent increase or $1.4 million of the total budget.
“It is a staggering of constantly renewing pay scales and making sure they are competitive in our area,” said Katherine Goff, spokeswoman for the York County School Division.
This year, non-licensed teachers get a pay increase averaging 4 percent and costs $1.4 million of the total budget.
Hampton
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Proposed pay increase: 3 percent
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Bachelor’s: $44,300
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Master’s: $46,900
The proposed 3 percent increase for teachers would cost $4.1 million in the Hampton City Schools budget.
“As far as the 19/20 teacher salary scale, that document is not finalized,” Kellie Goral, spokeswoman for HCS wrote in an email.
Last year, teachers received a 2 percent pay increase in the 2018-2019 school year. See the entire teacher pay rate scale here.
Newport News
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Proposed pay increase: 2 percent minimum, 4 percent maximum
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Bachelor’s: $44,535
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Master’s: $47,652
Last year, Newport News Public Schools gave teachers a 4 percent increase. This year, the superintendent wants to give teachers a minimum 2 percent increase or approximately $4.4 million out of the school’s budget.
At the last school board meeting on Feb. 19, Superintendent George Parker said the following:
“I firmly believe that the budget as presented this evening supports additional funding for many of the challenges facing our school division.”
More importantly in developing this budget, we have listened to the needs of our constituents throughout this process to ensure that this budget is supportive of our schools and our departments moving forward.”
