Teachers, librarians and professors face a lot of scrutiny in the year 2023, but there are those who fight to make sure folks remember the value educators bring to their communities.
South Dakota teacher salaries are the lowest in the region, and every penny matters in every school.
In Chamberlain though, Superintendent Justin Zajic said they found room in their budget to give local teachers a 7-9% raise beyond the most recent statewide raises.
“The 7.1% raise from Gov. Noem was phenomenal," Zajic said "So, part of it came from that, and then part of it came from just restructuring some of our title programs and our offerings around the district – putting people in different positions or moving things around. We did pass a bond for the new construction project, which was $5 million, but none of that is going towards teachers’ salaries. This is all from general fund and our title grant.”
Zajic said the higher end of the raises were directed to younger educators.
“Statistically speaking, if you are in year one or 2two of your teaching career, you are putting in 65-to-70-hour workweeks," Zajic said. "Bottom line is, it’s a job. You want that to show in the paycheck, and we weren’t there the last couple of years. So we said where do we need to be and we worked out three tiers to this system.”
That breaks down to 9% raises for teachers in the first four years of their career, 8% for years five through eight, and 7% for years nine and beyond.
Zajic said investing in your teachers is always worthwhile.
“The longer a teacher that you’ve identified as a good teacher – an effective teacher – is in a position, the more of an impact they have on the district," Zajic said. "We have excellent teachers here in Chamberlain and we want to focus on how do we keep them here, and how do we offer something the other districts can’t offer.”
Going into the school year, Zajic said everyone is excited to be back and teaching kids.