FORT SMITH, Ark — On Monday, May 9, The Fort Smith School Board approved an addition to the pay scale. This pay scale gives all certified staff with at least 16 years of service an increase and a one-time stipend of $1,500.
This pay increase comes after the district faced backlash for gifting teachers sparkly ink pens while the district's superintendent received a 14.47% pay increase.
The newly approved salary restructure gives these increases and an additional “step” increase at 22 years of service. Before this, the salary schedule ended at step 21 and did not provide increases for employees with 21 or more years of service in the district.
Starting in August of 2023, district employees will make at least $675 more each year until step 22. However, some of those veteran teachers say more needs to be done
"After looking at the new proposal, now it feels personal," said Fort Smith Public Schools Teacher Heather Aguilar.
Aguilar, a teacher with the district for 18-years, told the board tonight she’s upset about the district rewarding new teachers and those in administration over veteran teachers.
"They have seen a 14.47% raise go to the top,” Aguilar said. “They've seen over 12% go to new teachers and 2% or less go to veteran teachers.
She says even with the additional pay step.
"It's not enough to cover inflation. In addition, our insurance cost is going up as well," Aguilar said.
Board member Dalton Person says a change is needed to the current salary schedule.
"What keeps me up is that it just comes to the most minimal impact to our most veteran teachers."
School board member Dee Blackwell says she hopes all veteran teachers will accept this new scale.
"If there is one teacher who thinks this reflects our value of them being negative of them, I hate that,” said Blackwell. “Because it couldn't be farther from the truth."
Aguilar says it’s still unfair and asked the board to spread raises fairly
“Let me be clear. We need new teachers. And they need to be fairly compensated,” Aguilar said. “But we need not do at all at once and at the expense of the veterans."
DOWNLOAD THE 5NEWS APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE 5NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KFSM in the Channel Store.
For Fire TV, search for "KFSM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.