TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind board has postponed a vote on proposed salary changes that could significantly affect how much new staff members are paid compared to current employees.
A lot of the conversation about the proposed salary changes has to do with staff for next school year who are going to be new. For staff currently working who will return next year, they won't necessarily see a pay decrease, but they just might not see a pay increase. When it comes to pay for new staff, they could see a big difference in pay between themselves and current staff with the same degree.
Board member Michael Gordon said the delay is meant to give the board more time to understand the proposed changes before taking action.
"And then we're asked to vote on this? How can we?" Gordon commented during the meeting.
Currently, a staff member with a doctorate and 25 years of experience earns about $105,000 a year. Pay is also capped at 25 years of experience. Under the proposed changes, pay would be capped at 10 years of experience, meaning a new staff member with a doctorate and at least 10 years of experience would be capped at earning about $66,000. Staff members with a doctorate and 10 years of experience are already earning about $73,000.
The board is also considering eliminating the step program, which gives staff yearly raises.
Teacher Kasey Hopper spoke before the board in opposition to the proposed salary changes.
"If you honestly feel anywhere in your body that this is not right, stand up." Hopper said. "You are amazing people. All we're asking is to work with us. We are amazing people."
Former ASDB board member and also former assistant superintendent William Koehler warned that capping the salary schedule could hurt the school's ability to recruit staff.
"You may not have any recruitment at all, and it was already a problem to start with, but when you cap your salary schedule like that, people just won't apply,” Koehler said.
Koehler said he resigned after being silenced when he raised questions about ASDB's finances, saying he was threatened with being removed from a recent meeting.
"When I was asking questions about an agenda item, I was shut down at the meeting and was actually threatened with being escorted out of the meeting for being too disruptive." Koehler said.
Koehler said he developed a salary schedule back in 2014 that was consistent with other local districts.
"It recognized their experience. It was respectful of their hard work and dedication to a very select group of children." Koehler said.
The salary conversation comes as ASDB has already decided to lay off about 80 staff members. ASDB officials said they are trying to align staffing to the number of students they have, citing declining enrollment.
Parent Beata Tarasiuk said her daughter's teacher was among those laid off.
"I feel like the most vulnerable children are being just forgotten." Tarasiuk said.
Tarasiuk also questioned whether the staffing cuts were being applied evenly.
"If the enrollment is going down, and we're losing all kinds of children, we should be losing even more administrators and we're not." Tarasiuk said.
Within the next month, the board is expected to vote on salaries at a special board meeting. The new pay schedule could go into effect July 1 for new staff and August 1 for returning staff.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
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