For the third consecutive year, Camp Verde Unified School District is raising its teachers’ salaries.
On July 11, the CVUSD Governing Board unanimously approved a 1.06 percent teacher wage increase for the 2017-18 fiscal year.
In the 2015-16 school year, the district raised the salaries 4 percent, while 2016-17 saw a 1.7 percent increase. According to CVUSD Director of Business Services Steve Hicks, the revenue increase required to allocate the additional salary funds for 2017-18 amounts to $46,000.
That amount may be revised in October, Hicks said.
The governing board also unanimously approved CVUSD’s 2017-18 budget of $9,137,756, an increase over 2016-17’s figure of $8,745,350 and 2015-16’s figure of $8,114,897. The superintendent’s revised employment contract, tabled by the governing board since early June, was narrowly approved by the board.
The motion carried 3-2, with nays from board members Helen Freeman and Christopher Eric Lawton. At $112,551.46, the amended contract marks a 4 percent administrative raise and a 7 percent superintendent raise. The superintendent’s employment term expires June 18, 2018.
Though in June the board had discussed the option to approve Goodwin’s contract through the 2020-21 school year, the subject was not brought up.
Freeman took her opportunity to express concerns over the financial contract, referencing the district’s Pay for Performance statute that stipulates 3 percent should be withheld from Goodwin’s pay until his evaluation granted it.
The board has extensively discussed the evaluative tool the district uses to chart Goodwin’s performance, most recently during special work sessions on July 3, 5 and 6, but no action was taken to present or approve a formal superintendent evaluation.
Ongoing concerns about measuring the superintendent’s success, according to members of the board, include:
- The success of fifth-day programs. CVUSD operates on a four-day school week but offers additional/supplemental programs on Friday.
- Implementation of new educational programs.
- Growth of student math programs.
According to Freeman, the 3 percent that should have been withheld pending official evaluation had been added to the superintendent’s base salary in June — an arrangement Freeman does not believe the board intended. Freeman said that if CVUSD is paying the contract incorrectly, it would be considered a gift of public funds, thus breaking the law.
CVUSD Governing Board President Christine Schneider countered, saying that she had obtained information from Goodwin and the district’s attorney that supported the contract amount, including the 4 percent administrative raise and the 7 percent superintendent raise.
Freeman said that she would like to address the concerns in executive session at a later date, to which Schneider said that she saw “no need” for. CVUSD’s school year starts Monday, Aug. 7.
