The base salary for a teacher in the Baker School District will increase by more than $21,000 starting July 1, a nearly 56% increase, and all of the district’s approximately 125 teachers will get a raise based on a new salary schedule the Baker School Board approved Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Board members described the revolutionary schedule as a significant shift that will help the district retain its current teachers and attract highly qualified educators to fill openings in the future.

The Baker Education Association, the union that represents district teachers, had already ratified the new schedule, which will take effect July 1 of this year.

The new four-tier schedule, with a lowest salary of $60,000, replaces the current 16-step schedule with escalating pay based on a teacher’s years of experience and level of college education.

The lowest salary on that schedule, for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no additional college credit, is $38,349.

That schedule is part of a three-year contract with the teachers union that continues through June 30, 2024.

Under the current salary schedule, to have a salary exceeding the new base amount of $60,000, a teacher would need to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree plus 45 additional hours of college courses, and have at least 13 years of experience. The salary for a teacher at that rung on the previous schedule was $61,685.

The new schedule “essentially skips to the top 4 tiers of the traditional schedule, recognizing the level of education and skill required to serve as a licensed educator,” according to a school district press release. “The top end of the schedule remains largely the same, with a necessary cost of living adjustment to reflect the shift in costs since the prior contract negotiation.”

That means teachers with the most experience and the most college credits will also receive a raise, albeit a much smaller one than teachers who are in the lower half of the current 16-step schedule, where salaries range from $38,489 to $57,594.

Erin Lair, a Baker High School graduate who has been the district superintendent since July 1, 2022, didn’t have the average raise for teachers across the district.

Base salary based on legislative proposal

The press release announcing the new salary schedule describes this as “a truly radical shift from the traditional schedule utilized across the State of Oregon to a 4-tier professional approach to compensation that begins at $60,000 per year.”

That’s the minimum salary for certified teachers proposed by House Bill 2690, which was introduced in the Oregon Legislature when it convened last month.

Lawmakers have not taken any action on the bill, which would require the $60,000 minimum salary for certified teachers for all school districts.

Lair said the $60,000 base salary in the legislation was the basis for the Baker District’s new salary schedule.

With the current base salary of $38,489, Lair said it can be difficult to recruit teachers to Baker City.

She said another challenge is convincing teachers to stay with the district after the fourth or fifth year.

“We do not retain educators after five years easily,” Lair said.

The new schedule, which ensures that even starting teachers will earn a higher salary than they would have after five or more years under the current schedule, should help considerably with retaining teachers, she said.

The new salary schedule that takes effect July 1 boosts the top salary, for a teacher with at least four years of experience and either a master’s degree plus 45 college credits, or a bachelor’s degree and at least 90 hours, from $72,959 to $86,521, an 18.6% increase.

Lair said she has talked with more experienced teachers in the district, who will get a much smaller pay raise than some of their younger colleagues. She said they also supported the new schedule and were excited about the prospect of the district attracting top teachers with the new, higher salaries.

Lair said that a common theme in the dozens of conversations she had with district employees and residents during her first few months on the job was the need to focus on ensuring the district has the best teaching staff possible.

The new salary schedule will help accomplish that goal, she said.

“This is an investment as much, or more, about the retention of the amazing teaching staff we have in Baker as it is about recruiting new teachers to Baker,” Lair said. “We expect this investment to have big returns for not just our teachers directly, but for the district as a whole, for our students and families, for our local economy.”

Public perception

Lair understands that some residents will question the scale of the raises, particularly the $21,000 increase in the base teacher salary.

Typically, annual raises for teachers range from 2% to 5%.

But Lair believes the $60,000 starting salary reflects the importance of teaching, and moreover will help the district ensure that “the most highly qualified, most highly skilled teacher is standing in front of our students.”

There is no higher goal for the district, Lair said.

She also noted that the district is in a “uniquely strong financial position to be able to make this shift.”

Lair said the new salary schedule will increase the district’s personnel costs by $2.3 million the first year.

She said the district projects its ending fund balance, when the fiscal year ends June 30, 2023, will be about $12 million.

That’s about 20% of the district’s total budget.

Lair said maintaining an ending fund balance that’s 7.5% to 10% of the total budget is a reasonable level.

With the ending fund balance at 20% of the total budget, the district has a chance to spend some of those dollars on the teaching staff, Lair said.

“Sometimes when you have an opportunity to do the right thing, you’ve just got to jump,” she said.

School board members react

Andrew Bryan, a school board member and former Baker City councilor, said that in his 17 years as an elected official, the school board’s decision Tuesday to approve the new salary schedule was “probably the most seminal moment” during his tenures as an elected official.

“It’s that significant,” Bryan said.

He believes the board’s decision to boost the starting salary to $60,000 makes it clear to teachers and to local residents that the district values teachers and wants to make it possible, and attractive, for them to work here and, potentially, to complete their careers in Baker schools.

“I think it’s going to have a huge impact,” Bryan said, both in retaining the district’s current teachers and in recruiting teachers in the future. “It sends a strong message that yes, Baker is a viable place to be for people in their 20s and 30s.”

Recruiting and retaining teachers are challenges that affect school districts across the state and nation, he said.

Julie Huntington, the school board’s chair, emphasized that the district couldn’t have created the new salary schedule if not for the management decisions that made the change affordable.

“We couldn’t have made this important move if not for the school board members and other district leadership who came before us and put us in a financial position to make this decision,” Huntington said. “We are thrilled to be able to support our students and community through this investment in our educators. We can fiscally and responsibly do this without putting our staffing and programs at risk. We’re about the youth and we’re about the people who are teaching them. We need strong leaders, and the teachers are leaders in the classroom. We have to invest in that.”

Although it’s not likely the Legislature will pass a bill requiring all of the state’s nearly 200 school districts to join Baker in setting a $60,000 base salary for teachers, district officials noted that Baker could potentially serve as a model.

Toni Myers, president of the Baker Education Association, said “we are eager to pave the way for the state to see how proper compensation can build an even stronger district.”

Lair said she hopes “that the state focus on teacher shortages will encourage revenues to be directed toward similar models of redefining how we think of compensation in education. Oregon has an opportunity with the unprecedented corporate kicker this year to give the initial infusion of funding needed for this shift, which becomes more easily sustainable after the initial years of implementation.”

She was referring to Oregon’s corporate income tax kicker program, money the state uses for education. That could total about $1 billion in 2024.

Unlike the personal income tax kicker, which requires the state to return tax revenues to individuals, the corporate tax kicker is earmarked for education.

Classified employees received raise last year

Last year the school board also approved a new salary schedule for the district’s classified employees, which includes bus drivers, cooks, paraprofessionals, custodians and other employees.

That schedule ensures that all classified workers earn at least 10% more than the local minimum wage, and at least 15% more for employees who work with students in special education or who have an individualized education program.

Those minimum salaries are also included in House Bill 2690.

Baker’s classified salary schedule for the current school year range from $13.83 per hour to $24.66 per hour. Employees also receive a longevity bonus, ranging from $350 per year to $2,070 per year, depending on how long they’ve been with the district.