Aug 14 2006
Discouraging Longevity: School District Salaries
School districts are facing a problem; filling classrooms with teachers. One logical solution to this problem would be to work hard and retain the valued services of experienced, district-trained teachers. These are teachers who have been indoctrinated to district methodologies as well as the policies and procedures. What is the cost of not retaining your employees?
As most HR managers know, the cost of turnover adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company’s expenses. While it is difficult to fully calculate the cost of turnover (including hiring costs, training costs, productivity loss), industry experts often quote 25% of the average employee salary as a conservative estimate. For example, if the average salary is $20,000/yr the cost of one employee turnover is $5,000.
In school districts, 25% of $41,000 is $10,250 per teacher. Business has learned this lesson and it makes logical sense to apply the same principle to schools. Right?!?
Wrong. Take a look at some example salary schedules of local Houston school districts and their salary schedules according to their own web sites:
In these 5 districts, starting teachers average $40,754. Not a bad start to a profession. However, after 10 years of experience, the average salary has only gone up to $45,227. That means after 10 years, teachers can look forward to a service pin and a whopping $4,473 raise over their un-experienced colleagues. On top of that, these teachers are expected to mentor the younger teachers; after all, they are just learning the job.
Most offensive is Spring Branch ISD where a teacher with 6 years of experience earns $707 more than their unexperienced peers. Why on earth would someone want to stay with a district that so clearly is looking only for new employees?
Note to Spring Branch parents: What type of teacher would you rather have teaching your children, brand new or exprienced. Remember that at the next board/bond election.
Why are districts having problems holding on to teachers? Try valuing your resources and realizing that service can and should be rewarded.
Local school district salary schedules:
