At a meeting of the Camp Verde Unified School District Governing Board on Tuesday, Feb. 11, the board unanimously voted to approve a series of raises for teachers, staff and administrators for the Fiscal Year 2021 school year starting in August. Teachers will all be raised a step in the salary schedule, which amounts to an average pay increase of 1.65%, and the whole salary schedule will be increased by 4.85% across the board. Administrators will see a 4% pay increase. Classified staff will have their pay increased one step on the salary schedule.
In FY 2019, the board approved what amounted to a 7.52% raise for teachers through a similar combination of raise and scheduled step, and in FY 2020 they approved one amounting to 6%. The totalof the three years of raises will amount to a little over a 20% increase in teacher pay since March 2018, when Arizona Governor Doug Ducey promised his “20 by 2020” plan in response to statewide teacher strikes.
The raise for teachers is estimated to cost the district $320,000, while the raise for administrators will cost them $25,000 and classified staff raises will cost $40,000, for a total cost of $385,000. District staff estimate that if the state legislature follows through on promises to pay for the last bit of the promised raises, and if enrollment continues to increase as is expected, the district will pull in an additional $393,075 in funding in next year’s budget.
“This year right now we’re in pretty good shape because our enrollment’s up, because our budgets continue to go up,” CVUSD Business Manager Steve Hicks said. He said that if projections are off, the school district has reserves, but that he would soon “start sweating.”
“I’d love to give a little bit more than that,” Board Member Carol German said at the meeting,” though Hicks responded that he doubted there would be extra room in the budget beyond what was proposed.
“I would love to give them more than even Carol wants to give them,” Board Member Eric Lawton said. “The problem is made by the governor and his 20 by 2020. If he’s not willing to fork out all the funds to help us, I don’t see how we’re able to.”
No Banned Books
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board addressed concerns that had been brought up previously about certain books in the school’s language arts curriculum that include foul language and mature themes that members of the board were concerned about students reading.
The three books in question were all memoirs about growing up in bad circumstances. “Crazy Brave,” by America’s first American Indian Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, is about how Harjo grew up in Oklahoma in an abusive home.
“The Glass Castle,” by Jeannette Walls, is about how the author grew up in poverty and “Born A Crime,” by comedian Trevor Noah, describes how Noah was born to one black and one white parent in South Africa under apartheid.
“To me, it’s the double standard of saying, ‘If you said this at school, you’re going to get suspended for 10 days. But it’s OK to read that,’” board member Helen Freeman said. “And I don’t know if that’s the message that we should be promoting.”
Camp Verde High School English teacher Lara Lawrence made a speech in defense of the controversial books.
Regarding a resolution to keep these books in the curriculum, “A ‘no’ vote deprives our students of some powerful transformational stories and messages,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence read passages from the books to argue in favor of their inclusion.
“I have faith that ‘The Glass Castle,’ ‘Born A Crime’ and ‘Crazy Brave’ will also fulfill their greater purpose at CVHS, that they will inspire our students to take hold of their destiny, as well as cultivate the skills needed to do so,” Lawrence said.
By a 3-2 vote, the board passed a motion in favor of approving the books for the curriculum, while giving parents leeway to request an alternate text if they do not want their children reading the books.
