At the meeting of the Camp Verde Unified School District Governing Board on Feb. 12, a vote to raise teacher and staff salaries by 5 percent failed with a 2-2 vote, after some members of the board expressed desires to find out more information before making a decision; Carol German was absent from the meeting and did not vote.
“I’m not shooting it down,” said Eric Lawton, one of the two board members who voted no. “I just want to be prepared. It’s not that I don’t want this. I just want to make sure we have the money.”
The proposed raise came out of the recommendations of a meet-and-confer committee that had looked at the school district’s staffing needs, as well as school district administration. CVHS art teacher Tom Middlebrook proposed a possible raise of 7.5 percent for teachers and staff but the CVUSD administration recommended a 5 percent increase.
“In order to stay competitive and retain the professional- degree teachers that we have who want to seek a future here at Camp Verde, we need to give them something, and I think that’s a 7.5 [percent] raise,” Middlebrook said at the meeting, pointing to recent raises at other high schools in the area.
The 5 percent raise proposal was designed to increase every certified staff member’s salary up one step on the salary schedule — meaning an average raise of 1.65 percent — as well as increasing the whole salary schedule by 3.35 percent.
The proposed motion for a raise had language indicating that it would only go into effect pending funding coming from the Arizona State Legislature, in accordance with Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan for a 20 percent teacher pay raise between 2018 and 2020. Since FY 2019-2020 pay raises have not yet been allocated, the school district is not yet certain of exactly how much state funding will be allocated.
According to CVUSD Business Manager Steve Hicks, the total cost of a 5 percent raise would be about $240,000, which the school district would have trouble covering in the coming years without more state funding.
“We could do it [for the first year] because we have a little bit of cash reserve for the rough years,” Hicks said. “But you can’t sustain it. Salaries and benefits have to be sustained. The only way to fix it is to cut something else or cut staff.”
Helen Freeman, the other board member who voted no on Tuesday, expressed a desire to raise salaries at a coming meeting but wanted more of a chance to look over the budget.
“It’s not that I’m against giving anyone a raise,” Freeman said. “I just want time to think it through.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 282-7795 or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
