Officials hope new Carbondale contract helps attract, retain hard-to-find teachers
Jul. 7—As the national teacher shortage worsens, officials hope a new contract for Carbondale Area educators helps recruit and retain staff.
School directors approved the three-year agreement last week that raises salaries and decreases the number of years it takes for a teacher to reach top-scale pay.
The new contract comes after nine teachers resigned this year to take other jobs in education — including at higher paying school districts or cyber charter schools — and as more state money allows the district to pay higher salaries.
"They need teachers. They need to be able to recruit them and retain them," said Jim Maria, the union's representative from the Pennsylvania State Education Association and chief negotiator. "We all had the same goal, to make the salaries and benefits more attractive."
The three-year contract, effective July 1, provides an average 5.14% raise each year. Teachers will receive raises of 2.74% in 2023-24, 2.93% in 2024-25 and 3.07% in 2025-26. The employees not yet at top scale pay also receive step movement on the salary scale, bringing their total raise for some to about 5% per year.
To help recruit new teachers, first-year pay will increase from $45,588 last year to $54,655 by the end of the contract.
To help retain teachers, Carbondale has gradually worked to lessen a bump step. Similar to the Scranton School District, Carbondale teachers would receive a large bump in pay when reaching top scale. Over the last couple contracts, the bump step has decreased from about $13,000 to $3,500, and the new contract has teachers reach top step in year 16, instead of 20. Top pay for a teacher with a master's degree plus 60 additional credits will grow to $89,021 in the contract's final year.
While Carbondale has typically been near the bottom of teacher pay in Lackawanna County, the agreement will move the district closer to the middle. Maria said.
Teachers will pay more in health insurance deductibles, while the district will provide family vision coverage beginning Sept. 1 and a flexible spending account to employees next year. The union also agreed to working an additional professional development day.
During the June 29 meeting, the board also approved raises of 5.1%, 5.15% and 5.17% over the next three years for administrators and administrative support staff and an additional 3.6% increase to the contracted 2.5% increase for Superintendent Holly Sayre for the 2023-24 school year.
After approving the contract and pay increases last week, the board approved the 2023-24 budget with no tax increase. Additional state funding over the last several years has allowed the district to pass the budget and increase salaries, Business Manager David Cerra said.
Over the last decade, the district had to furlough teachers, raise taxes and struggle to settle contracts when state funding failed to keep up with rising costs. The state budget approved by the House this week would provide an additional $1.5 million in state funding, an increase of 11.3%.
"If the money is there, we'll pass it along," board President Gary Smedley said. "It's very difficult to bring in new teachers ... if you can do the same thing and get paid more, it doesn't make sense to stay. But our hands have been tied."
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter.
