Teacher Salary Budget Sees Increase for 2011-2012 School Year

The Kirkwood School District will fund a 1.29 percent increase in the teacher salary budget for the 2011-2012 school year, in spite of a school district proposal to trim more than $2 million from its operating expenses.

The increase is part of a 2 percent total boost to teacher salary packages, which include district contributions to employee health insurance and retirement programs.

“We believe this package will allow us to attract and maintain the best teachers in St. Louis while being financially responsible,” assistant superintendent of human resources Jeanette Tendai told school board members at their meeting Monday night on behalf of the administration.

Tendai said that the rate is competitive with districts that are Kirkwood schools’ highest competitors. She also highlighted the smooth and amiable process of reaching a salary package rate.

“In many districts, teachers are pulled out of classrooms to conduct negotiations,” Tendai said, adding that in other districts salary negotiations can be competitive and contentious. “We do not have that in Kirkwood.”

Members of the teacher salary committee spent a significant amount of time after school hours conducting negotiations in order to not disrupt the classroom experience, according to Tendai. “We worked backward from a number, which is a challenging and complicated process,” she said.

Board member John Glunt noted that the increase could go down if teachers, particularly veteran educators, choose to retire prior to the end of the school year. “This increase assumes the status quo,” he said.

The increase comes in spite of the district cutting more than $2 million from its budget at the request of the school board.

Superintendent Tom Williams presented proposed 2011-2012 budget cuts at Monday night’s meeting. The district was asked by board members to find areas to cut from the budget in order to bring district expenditures in line with revenues and reduce the district’s reliance on its fund balance, which will free up cash flow.

“Our goal was to (propose cuts) without impacting class size or the structural integrity of our schools,” Williams said.

Both Williams and board president Scott Stream stressed that the district scrutinized every budget item in an effort to maintain students’ educational experience.

“These cuts are as far away from the classroom as possible,” Stream said, adding that the process of examining areas to cut from the budget included staff from every level of the district. “It was a buy-in process from the bottom up,” he said. The proposed cuts will bring stability to district finances and ensure, although there might be “bumps and bruises along the way,” district finances will not be subjected to “peaks and valleys.”

Approximately 80 percent of the district’s budget goes toward personnel costs. Although the district attempted to propose cuts that would affect personnel as little as possible, 25 positions will not be filled in the 2011-2012 school year, if cuts are approved by the board.

The district will be reorganizing certain departments and some positions will not be filled due to attrition.

The greatest savings to the district will come from a retirement incentive package that will save the district approximately $1 million, Williams said.