By Gloria Lloyd
News Editor
glorialloyd@callnewspapers.com

The Lindbergh Schools teachers’ union and the administration agreed on a raise this year,  avoiding the strife of two years ago during Superintendent Jim Simpson’s last year as superintendent.

This year’s proposal to grant teachers a 3.1-percent step increase was set to be considered by the Lindbergh Board of Education Tuesday night — after the Call went to press.

Based on where teachers fall in the salary schedule, some teachers will see less of an increase and some teachers will see more, but the average raise will be 3.1 percent.

Every teacher will receive a step increase, except those who are at the top of the salary schedule and cannot move up.

The raise is the “result of positive collaboration between teacher representatives and administrators this year,” the district said in advance of the vote.

On the administration side, negotiations were handled this year by Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Brian McKenney. LNEA President Kim Scronce was unavailable to comment before the Call’s press time.

Besides the step increase, more money was added to certain cells of the salary schedule to make them more competitive with benchmark districts. The district also added money to some cells last year to make them more competitive.

Overall, the district added more money to five rungs on the salary schedule for teachers with bachelor’s degrees, five rungs for teachers with bachelor’s degrees plus 150 hours of more education, nine rungs for teachers with master’s degrees and 10 rungs for teachers with master’s degrees plus 30 graduate hours.

The district saved $2.3 million this year from 27 retiring teachers. The step costs $810,279 of that, and the cost of 27 new teachers to replace the retiring ones is $1.4 million. Lane changes from teachers gaining education adds $104,210.

The district continues to add new teachers too. It will add 1.84 classroom teachers, a counselor and an in-school suspension/credit-recovery teacher at Lindbergh High School, two teachers and a reading specialist for middle school, two teachers, a reading specialist and a library media specialist for elementary and one districtwide literacy coach. That adds up to $752,367 in new salaries.