Teachers thinking about working in the Peninsula area might want to take a look at York County.
The York County School Division pays its teachers, on average, the best out of all eight local school divisions, according to a study released in December.
The study, done by consulting firm The Crim Dell Group LLC in Williamsburg, compared starting, maximum and two types of average salaries of Charles City, Chesapeake, Gloucester, Hampton, Isle of Wight, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, New Kent, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Surry, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg-James City County and York.
Out of the eight Peninsula area divisions, York is No. 1 by three assessments of compensation: starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no teaching experience, at $42,261; average salary for a teacher with 21 years of experience, at $63,032; and overall average salary of a “standard” faculty of 900 teachers with various levels of experience, at $53,722.
There’s a fourth category in the study, maximum salary regardless of experience. York ranks second in the Peninsula area at $75,656; Williamsburg-James City pays the most at $77,945.
The composite rank, which averages all four types of salaries, places York first among Peninsula-area divisions and second among all 18 Hampton Roads systems. After that, local divisions fall as follows: Isle of Wight, Williamsburg-James City, Newport News, Hampton, Gloucester, Mathews and Poquoson.
York’s recent changes
All divisions use their own versions of salary schedules — charts that allow teachers to determine how much they should be paid based on number of years of experience and level of education attained.
York has recently worked to restructure its schedule to remain attractive to future employees. Two years ago, the School Board commissioned a similar study of nine local divisions that they consider their competitive peers, while also seeking recommendations for how to improve how current teachers are being paid.
Based on suggestions from that survey, York added a level of pay for teachers with doctorate degrees. The division also changed the amount of raises between different levels of experience to try to eliminate any large or small jumps from year to year.
Dennis Jarrett, chief financial officer for YCSD, said that there was no goal for the changes in pay other than a more equal spread among years of experience.
“We wanted the career earnings for our teachers to be very competitive,” Jarrett said. “We didn’t necessarily look at this part or that part of the scale to be well above everyone else. We wanted to be competitive in all areas of the pay scale. Even though we may not be as competitive at some spots of the pay scale, overall it’s very competitive.”
York’s overall ranking is in line with its strategic goals, which is to be among the best divisions in the area. Jarrett said that with pay being just one factor in deciding where to work, it was too soon to tell if the new schedule made a huge difference in employee candidates.
Some divisions might front load a salary schedule to attract teachers fresh out of college, while others encourage teachers to work toward an advanced degree that comes with a bigger jump in pay.
Alternatives to schedules, such as a merit-based pay system, would not help and could make teachers competitive against one another, according to Meg Gruber¿, president of the Virginia Education Association. She said that because of the recession, statewide salary freezes have teachers of different experience levels stalled at lower pay rates — an expensive problem that local divisions are trying to rectify.
Last fiscal year, York and Newport News moved teachers who had been frozen up a step, the first move to increase salaries to the levels at which they are supposed to be. York still has four more tiers to move its teachers, something Jarrett called a “pretty sizable financial commitment” that can’t be changed with one year’s budget.
In a recent presentation to the School Board, Jarrett said raising staff another step in the fiscal year 2017 budget would cost about $908,000 — but Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposed two-year budget doesn’t include money for raises in 2017.
Gruber said that school-hopping due to delayed raises isn’t uncommon in the state.
“I’m very familiar with people I know who are members (of the VEA) and friends, and it’s like ‘Oh well, weren’t you in Virginia Beach?’ and then, ‘Yeah, but I transferred over to Chesapeake.’ ‘Didn’t you teach in Hampton?’ ‘Yeah but I transferred to here,’ and there’s a lot of that,” Gruber said. “If an opening becomes available and you haven’t gotten any raises in so long, it becomes a problem.”
Teachers who choose to stay in an area feel the crunch of being paid less than the scale says they should.
“I know that with budget constraints, it’s very hard to compensate us for what we do,” said Martha Tereska, who’s taught in Newport News for 31 years. “It is something teachers are concerned about, because if you’re on your own, if you’re single, it’s difficult to support a household on a teacher’s salary. I think sometimes there’s a feeling, I have heard, that (other teachers) don’t feel the salary compensates what they do day in and day out, because it’s very time-consuming. You use a lot of your own money.”
Until teachers can be moved to the salary they’re supposed to be at, Gruber said that a consistent spread of pay raises across the various types of experience — which officials in York, Newport News and Hampton say is the goal — is the ideal.
“You should be making a salary that allows you to live with dignity where you work. … It just has to be the whole concept of a living wage and being paid as a professional,” Gruber said.
‘It’s really not about the money’
Newport News Public Schools ranks fourth-best in the composite rank and has the second-highest starting teacher pay in the Peninsula at $41,500.
While pay might not be the highest, the division has worked in recent years to better support its teachers so they don’t feel underappreciated or unprepared for what might happen in their classrooms. New teachers can shadow “model teachers” who show best practices, teach in summer programs before the regular school year begins and access the curriculum as soon as they’re hired.
Teachers who have been with NNPS for many years think the initiatives have helped teachers grow in the classroom.
“We work very closely as grade levels and we’re asked to plan together, to discuss data together. We’re not on an island by ourselves,” Tereska said. “Out of all the school systems in our area, I feel like Newport News has the strongest support system for new teachers. … That wasn’t in place when I started teaching. Now we actively seek these new teachers to help them.”
NNPS Superintendent Ashby Kilgore said that forming that support system for all teachers will hopefully help the division retain its best resources.
“I think we understand that we have to have a lot of really attractive habits for people to stay with us,” Kilgore said. “So we really have worked really hard to develop those habits and practices so that people don’t feel tempted to leave and just that the grass is going to be greener. We want this grass to feel very green and rewarding for people. …
“I think what you pay people does say to them, ‘I care about you,’ ” Kilgore said. “A lot of other things say ‘I care about you,’ also, in terms of my opportunities to learn, my opportunities to grow and interact with my colleagues and have some flexibility and to be innovative, but all of that’s a package, and that’s what we’re trying to create is this package of, ‘I like going to work in Newport News.’
Hampton City Schools, which pays a starting salary of $40,500 and a 21-year average of $53,006, tries to attract new teachers with similar mentorship and coaching opportunities. And despite losing nearly $24 million in state funding since 2009, according to Robbin Ruth¿, executive director of human resources, the division has “greatly expanded” health benefits to help its employees.
There is a perception among some in the profession that by moving to a new school in a different locality, problems faced at a previous school would vanish. That doesn’t always pan out, said Katie Morello, who teaches first grade at Yates Elementary School in Newport News.
“I would know teachers who would leave here and go to York County because they think it’s a different makeup of children, and it’s a different set of issues,” said Morello, who taught in Hampton for seven years and Newport News for five before taking a break to be with her family. “That’s what (a friend who left Newport News for York County) said: ‘I left one set (of problems) for another set.’ It’s a whole different ballgame.”
Even with differences between divisions, ultimately, a love of teaching is what Tereska, Morello and other teachers said is what matters other than the amount on a pay stub.
“Even though my salary’s not large, I have other ways I’m being compensated. … You have children every morning who greet you with a smile, and you may be the only safe haven that they have,” Tereska said. “You know that you’re making a difference in their lives. It’s really not about the money, it’s about what change you can make in your own way.”
Hammond can be reached by phone at 757-247-4951.
Teaching the 91st best starting job
If you have a bachelor’s degree and are starting out in your career, education will net you the 91st-best starting pay, according to national figures from 2013-14 on Payscale.com. The top nine, with average starting salary:
Petroleum engineering, $103,000
Chemical engineering, $68,200
Nuclear engineering, $67,600
Computer engineering, $65,300
Electrical engineering, $64,300
Aerospace engineering, $62,800
Materials science and engineering, $62,700
Industrial engineering, $61,100
Mechanical engineering, $60,900
91. Education, $37,400
