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SAN LUIS, Ariz. – Teachers in the Gadsden Elementary School District will begin the new school year with an across-the-board raise of $2,280, thanks to added state funding the district is receiving based on enrollment.
The increase, approved recently by the district’s governing board, brings to $40,580 the base salary paid to teachers in elementary schools serving San Luis and neighboring Gadsden.
The board also added another $1,700 annually to the pay of teachers who successfully complete the Teacher Advancement Program or TAP. With the TAP addition, the base salary goes to $42,280.
The increases, approved by unanimous vote, will go to 205 certified teachers in the district and to teachers with emergency certifications, the latter of whom will see their pay increase to $32,934.
Rosy Ballesteros, the Gadsden district’s human resources director, said teacher pay increases are one of approved uses of state funding that local districts receive based on their student enrollments.
“Some districts decide to (allocate the funds) for other uses, but we proposed that they be used to increase teacher salaries,” she said. “We didn’t want to begin the year (with teachers) earning less than that those in other districts receive.”
The district had been funding its TAP teacher development program with its own money and with grant funds from Arizona State University. While the grant funds have since run out, Ballesteros said, the district decided to continue using its own funds to provide the additional pay increase as an incentive for teachers to complete the program.
“I have always said that the teachers are paid less than what they deserve,” said Luis Marquez, the Gadsden governing board president. “They should be earning more, but it’s not that the governing board doesn’t want to give them more. The problem is there’s no funds.”
Marquez said it’s up to the public to pressure their state lawmakers to provide more funding for education.
“I hope the community demands that legislators spend more on education, that they set aside more money for students. They should invest more on those who are the future of our city, our state and our nation. But less is invested. We are one of the states that spends the least in education for the student.”
The district, with the help of the consulting firm Educational Management Solutions, is planning a salary student comparing its teacher and employee pay levels with those in districts in other communities of similar size. The last salary study done by the Gadsden district was in 2017.
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