Academy District 20 board votes to give 6% raise to all district employees

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Thursday night, Academy District 20 board members voted in favor of a six percent salary increase for staff, teachers, and administrative staff. Combined with other raises given out in the district in the past three years, that totals a 25 percent raise over the past few years.

According to the district, that means 96 cents of every dollar given to the district will go towards compensation for district employees.

"We want to show that we are taking that as a priority, that we pay teachers as best we can because we feel that's important and also to be competitive," Cameron Smart, District 20 Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources said.

Smart went on to say that the district was also working on subsidizing the increase in costs of benefits like health insurance so that the raise would be felt, instead of absorbed in that increase.

Still, while teachers in attendance sounded appreciative of the raise, they asked for more equity in the decision, pointing out that the pay gap between the administration and teachers means that the administration would be getting vastly more money because of the raise.

 "I acknowledge that the current proposal to offer a 6 percent salary increase for D20 employees is extremely generous and equal. It is not, however, equitable," Emily Heinrich, a commenter at Thursday's board meeting said.

Another topic of conversation is a policy adopted by the board that measures the salaries of teachers and administrative staff. That policy pulls salary data from different geographical regions for teachers and administration.

According to the district, they will reconsider that policy in June.

In the meeting, they acknowledged the criticism from teachers and said they are looking at options to structure differently in the following year.