BELLE — Maries R-2 school district teachers will see an increase in their salaries for the 2020-21 school year as a result of a Feb. 27 decision to add $75,000 to the salary line item.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham encouraged the board to increase the salary base at the meeting in two ways, by updating experience steps and increasing wages.

“Because we need to make new contracts for March, I would like you guys to approve the new salary schedule to give them their step at this point,” Basham said. “I think in June we can come back to look at what we can afford to add something to the base, but I do think we need to approve this step.”

Basham added that she also felt the board needed to approve the frozen steps, but said that was a separate item.

“It’s going to run about $50,000 to increase the one step for everybody,” Basham told the board.

Board Vice President Dawn Hicks asked if Basham felt that amount was in the budget to spend, and Basham said yes. Director Tom Kinsey made the motion to move forward with the item.

“So is that across the board?” Board President Joey Butler II asked. “Even struggling people are getting that amount?”

Basham said yes, teacher salaries are not based on evaluations.

“Our salaries are based off of a schedule that you approve,” Basham said. “Everyone who is on the schedule, it will match it for the non-certified staff across the board.”

The board approved the increase with a 7-0 vote.

“When we approve just the experience step, where everyone who is here this year gets a raise next year, it is approximately a $50,000 increase in salary and benefits for everybody in the district,” Basham said. “We had 10 teachers who had missed one experience step and 24 teachers who had missed two experience steps.”

Basham asked the board to approve an additional $25,000 for the 24 teachers who had missed two steps based on another year of experience. The board was hesitant to approve the amount during the meeting.

“What do you mean by frozen?” Kinsey asked when Basham mentioned teachers were frozen in their steps. Basham explained that the board didn’t give those teachers an experience increase for the 2015-16 or 2017-18 school years.

“That was based on their insurance,” Butler and Kinsey argued.

“Yes, but they are frozen on their salaries scale,” Basham said.

Director Amy Kiso reminded the board that they had started a catch-up system several years ago that was dropped a year or two later. That was meant to update the teachers’ steps.

“Yes, they voted to put the increase on the base and not give them a step,” Hicks said.

Butler argued that the insurance increase was well over what the increase in salaries would have been.

“The teachers voted what they wanted to do,” Kinsey added.

Basham said she understood that, but there comes a time where the district should want to catch the teachers up to where they should be or they will go somewhere else to get the increase.

“Teachers who have more experience can go to Owensville and get 20 years on the salary schedule,” Basham said.

Kinsey argued that some teachers would leave regardless, depending on where their home is and for other reasons.

“My concern is trying to make it all up in one year,” Kinsey said.

Director Brent Stratman added that they needed to take care of the teachers who have stayed.

“I would like us to recognize that they have stayed and that we would like to move them up their step that they should be on,” Basham said. “It is 34 teachers total.”

She said no teacher is behind more than two steps, even though some thought it had been more than that.

“So total you will be adding about $75,000 to the salary budget if you did the whole thing,” Basham said and again confirmed with the board that she thought they could absorb the increase next year. “We have got some reductions in other places that are coming.”

Kinsey told Basham that he doesn’t usually go along with something like this, but he is going to trust Basham because that is why they hired her to begin with.

Kinsey made a motion to approve the salary increase and Hicks seconded. The board passed the measure with a 7-0 vote.

Certified teachers have a salary scale that will determine their pay increase. Non-certified positions such as secretaries, paras, maintenance, custodial, and nurses that do not hold a teaching certificate do not have a salary scale.

All teachers who were frozen on a step and all non-certified staff who were frozen in their hourly wage will receive an increase.

Basham said she wasn’t surprised by the board’s hesitation.

“They are very frugal,” she said. “They are very fiscally responsible so they just want to make sure the money is there to cover it.”

And, she noted, “I think it is important that we value the staff that we have. We have provided them with professional development, we have trained them, and we want to keep those quality teachers in our classrooms.”

She added that she would like the district to be ahead of the state on the push to increase teachers’ salaries.

“Right now there is that push at the legislature to increase that base salary,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that we had our steps cleaned up before we started really thinking about those increases that are going to be required to the base.”

Basham’s push to be ahead of the state is well-grounded. Gov. Mike Parson told The Advocate at the Feb. 20 Osage County Lincoln Day Banquet that teachers’ salaries are something they need to figure out soon.

“We have fully funded the formula, trying to keep on track, and I think we are keeping a pretty good eye on that right now,” Parson said. “The big thing we need to figure out is what to do with the teachers. They do need an increase in pay.”