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Ignacio School Board discusses salary issues

Employees leaving for better pay elsewhere

Ignacio school officials are worried about good employees leaving for better pay elsewhere, and prospective employees passing over the district for the same reason.

At the Dec. 11 school board meeting, Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto provided a survey of pay rates in area school districts, not counting Durango. To be competitive, Ignacio salaries need almost a 6 percent increase, he advised.

Teachers and administrators get pay increases for number of years in the district and for college credits above a bachelors degree. Fuschetto questioned the logic of freezing salaries at a certain point. "You max out for the rest of your career," he said. He wants to change that.

Board president Toby Roderick said the pay increases for advanced education aren't enough to make it worth getting the advanced education. "If you aren't paying them enough, where's the motivation?" he asked.

Fuschetto commented, "When I started teaching, I had to have my master's degree in five years or I couldn't teach any more."

Board member Troy Webb said, "There's no motivation for principals to get higher education either."

Board member Luke Kirk asked, "What can we afford?" Fuschetto agreed that needs to be considered. It should be less of an issue if district enrollment and state per pupil funding keep going up, he said.

Roderick noted that state funding increases are likely to be reduced by TABOR Amendment restrictions on government revenue and spending increases. "TABOR has to change," he said. "Our state can't survive without TABOR changing. We aren't competitive with the rest of the country."

TABOR's "ratchet down effect" means that after years of revenue and spending decreases, limits on revenue and spending increases kick in at a much lower level. That "excess" revenue is supposed to be returned to taxpayers, conflicting with school districts' desires to recover from several years of state funding cuts.

Early this year, Ignacio's total cuts were listed at just over $1 million.

Webb asked if the salary step system has become antiquated. He raised the issue of college student loan debt. Roderick cited a cultural expectation that "success" requires a college degree.

Kirk asked, "If you're making $30,000 a year, how do you pay those (college loans) back?"

Webb said, "We need to pay people what they're worth, to keep them."

Board member Bobby Schurman lamented, "You are talking about the most important organization in the community, and it pays the least."

Webb added, "Any agency, you can find out what they care about by what they spend. Does the government care about the future? No. They don't spend any money on it."

Fuschetto cited the district's technology director position and said, "I lose a lot of sleep over that. He (the technology director) could work somewhere else for twice the money."

The discussion also included non-salaried support staff.

Fuschetto said, "Getting a cook for $9 an hour, you can get more staying home on welfare. We lost the maintenance director and assistant maintenance director to La Plata County."

He advised that salaries and benefits are about 80 percent of General Fund spending.

Kirk said, "Unless we have more income, I don't know what we can do."

Start with maintenance and technology, Webb said.

Roderick said, "Outside of energy, people don't get 4-7 percent raises."

Fuschetto said, "Ours has been 1 percent. Last year 2 percent."

Webb suggested, "If teachers came in and there were no steps, when the district can afford raises, you'll get one. You don't teach because of the money. I like working with kids. It's deeply rewarding."

But he also worried, "We're competing with Aztec and Farmington for teachers."

Fuschetto said he went to an event at Fort Lewis College and talked to every education student. "Aztec was there in force too. (Those students) want to come to Ignacio, but they will go to Durango for the pay."

Webb asked about merit pay. Fuschetto advised there must be very objective criteria for who gets a merit pay raise and who doesn't.

He asked board members to be ready for more discussion at their Jan. 15 meeting.