New contract boosts rookie teachers’ pay

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 | 11 a.m.

Salaries for rookie teachers in the Clark County School District will break the $30,000 barrier for the first time ever thanks to a newly ratified contract between the union and the district.

The prior contract called for new hires with a bachelor's degree but no teaching experience to be paid $28,491. The new contract would allow those teachers to skip immediately to the second step on the salary scale and be paid $30,468. The increased salary includes a 2 percent pay hike set by the 2005 Legislature.

The contract is expected to be approved by the School Board Sept. 8.

The salary increase would apply to new teachers hired for the current school year. Teachers hired for 2006-07 would also be allowed to bypass the first step on the salary scale and would be paid $31,687. That includes a 4 percent pay increase approved by the Legislature for the second year of the biennium.

Megan Nykodym, a new teacher who spent hundreds of dollars on basic supplies to ready her room for students at Mojave High School, said while the extra pay is welcome she hasn't heard any griping about the salary she and her fellow newcomers were originally contracted to receive.

"Obviously we didn't come into teaching for the pay check," said Nykodym, a graduate of the University of Wyoming with bachelor's degrees in history and education. "If we were in it for the money we would have become something else."

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, said of the 125 votes cast at Tuesday's ratification meeting at Del Sol High School, 99 percent were in favor of ratifying the four-year contract.

Holloway said she wasn't surprised that more of the district's 16,000 teachers didn't turn out for the meeting.

"We publicized what the contract was going to be and posted it on our Web site for quite a few weeks," Holloway said. "Most people assumed it would pass and were satisfied with the provisions."

The district earlier this summer hammered out a four-year contract with its support employees. A ratification vote on a four-year contract with the administrators' union is set for Sept. 7.

In addition to the increase for new teachers there was also good news in the contract for veteran educators. Teachers with at least 15 years of service, a master's degree and 32 additional academic credits will now earn $59,431.

Under the prior contract, teachers with that level of academic credentials "topped out" at $56,980 after 14 years' employment, Holloway said.

Having salaries for first-year teachers "break out of the 20s" will help when recruiting begins this winter for the 2006-07 academic year, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources for the district.

"It's a small difference financially, but it's going to have a positive impact nonetheless," Rice said.

The Silver State's starting salaries for teachers are among the lowest in the nation.

Nevada ranked 26th in the nation with an average teacher salary of about $43,500 in a recent survey by the National Education Association. On the district's new salary scale it would take a teacher nine years and 32 credits toward a master's degree to reach that pay level.

The contract also addressed some of the mutual concerns of the district and the union, including the ever-growing problem of teacher turnover.

The district and the union plan to conduct a joint study of school climate and working conditions, including a survey of employees. The Clark County Association of School Administrators is expected to participate as well, Rice said.

"We're very excited about the spirit of cooperation we're seeing from all sides," Rice said.

The teachers' union estimates that a third of the district's new teachers leave within three to five years. The reasons they give for their departures include not having family in the area, the low pay and dissatisfaction with school administration, Holloway said.

"We can't do anything about the family part of it, but we can certainly try to address the low pay and the rogue administrators who are difficult to deal with," Holloway said.

According to Clark County's Consolidated Plan, an annual median income of $74,880 would be needed to afford the purchase of a $250,000 home. As of July the median price of a resale home in the Las Vegas Valley was $280,000, according to Home Builders Research Inc.'s housing market report.