DVUSD
– Teachers in the Deer Valley Unified School District
continue to play the waiting game on a salary schedule
for new hires.
A
special meeting had been called for May 29, but was subsequently
cancelled. The information will now be presented at the
June 12 meeting.
“We
didn’t feel like we were ready to make a recommendation
to the board,” said Jim Migliorino, director of fiscal
services for the district.
Things
missing, or not solid enough yet to take to the board
include funding from the state legislature and statistics
like student counts and special education student counts.
Migliorino said those numbers are just starting to come
in and that some of the numbers won’t be workable enough
to present to the board until June 12.
“We
just got the updated special education counts May 30,”
he said.
Mark
Kafouros, a teacher in the district at Deer Valley High
School, emphasized the need to close the salary gap in
an e‑mail to The Desert Advocate.
“I
have serious concerns that the district office would not
be able to act on the recommendation of the board. Knowing
that hiring salaries are far behind neighboring districts,
we are hopeful that the district administration will find
a way to resolve this concern. I am confident that teachers
will continue to ask the district to appropriate a greater
percentage of the 301 funding to teacher salaries as other
districts have done.”
Prop
301 is a voter‑approved measure with the intent
to appropriate more money from the state to fund teacher
salaries.
Numbers
being discussed at the state level boil down to a starting‑teacher
salary of $33,000 a year, said Migliorino.
“We’d
like to get that to $35,000 a year, but we’re not sure
it’s affordable due to the salary compression it would
cause.”
Board
member and Arizona State House Majority Leader Tom Boone
could not be reached for comment on how budget talks are
progressing, but disagreements between the Republican
majority in the House and Senate and Democratic Gov. Janet
Napolitano have dragged budget approval into July the
past few years.
Board
Member Ron Bayer said the last few weeks have been very
“frustrating,” and that he is hoping to have enough information
at the June 12 meeting to be able to make a decision and
move forward.
