Kalispell schools finalize $48 million budget

Teacher pay rises $803,800

Flathead County's new taxable values were released Friday, allowing local school districts to finalize their school budgets this week.

Budgets have been on hold while the county reassessed the area's taxable values.

Kalispell Public Schools' board of trustees approved the elementary and high school budgets at its regular meeting earlier this month, but district clerk Todd Watkins was unable to submit the budget to the state Office of Public Instruction until the taxable values were released.

Kalispell's elementary district has a $21.5 million operating budget.

The high school district has a $26.9 million budget. The bulk of both budgets goes to staff salaries and benefits.

Kalispell's average teacher salary is about $50,800, Watkins said.

The average was figured after negotiations last spring with the Kalispell Education Association, the district's teachers union. The union and the district settled on a 2 percent raise on the base, which means teachers' base salaries will increase by 2 percent a year for the next two years.

The lowest full-time teacher's salary this year is $31,100, the union's scheduled salary for teachers with three years' experience.

This year, five teachers in the district will earn this salary, plus benefits.

A full-time teacher with no experience would make about $27,600, according to the union's salary schedule, which is based on educators' years of experience and continuing education.

At the other end of the spectrum, one teacher in the district will make $73,300 this year. Seven more will make about $68,600. An additional 75 teachers will make between $60,800 and $67,500.

These salaries all will increase by 2 percent on the base again next year. Teachers' salaries also will increase as they add another year's experience. If they complete college coursework throughout the year, their salaries will go up even more.

The pay increases will cost the district $803,800, Watkins said. About $374,600 of that was due to the 2 percent raise on the base.

The district eliminated a $139,000 shortfall in the high school budget by not filling jobs vacated by attrition and by slashing $20,000 from the activities budget.

"We did talk about the fact that we could eliminate the high school deficit if we did not have to provide a 2 percent base salary schedule increase," Watkins said in an e-mail to the Inter Lake. "However, this was not the end result via the negotiation process."

In light of the economy, Watkins had recommended increasing wages by 0 to 1 percent. Before negotiations were complete, the school board finance committee directed Watkins to budget for a 2 percent base raise.

The teachers union also negotiated an 8 percent increase in the district's health insurance contribution this spring. The district's health insurance rates increased by 20 percent this year, said Karen Glasser, the district's human resources director.

There were more insurance claims in the district this year, she explained, and health-care costs in general are on the rise. On average, health-care costs are increasing 6 to 7 percent a year, Glasser said.

If the 2 percent base raise hadn't been approved, several staff members could have been in financial trouble even with the district's higher insurance contributions, Superintendent Darlene Schottle said.

"We … wanted to offset some of the cost of increased health-care coverage," she wrote in an e-mail to the Inter Lake. "In some cases, if we had not provided a base salary increase, staff would have had a reduction in salary after paying for an increase in their benefits package."

This is the lowest raise union members have received for four or five years, Kalispell Education Association President John Hughes said.

"This year, just given everything that's going on, we felt pretty lucky to end up with 2 percent," he said.

"We didn't even start has high as we normally start" negotiations, he added. "Given the economy, I think this is the best we could have hoped for."

Certified staffers in Whitefish Public Schools negotiated a 2 percent raise on the base, plus about a 10 percent increase in the district's insurance contribution, district clerk Danelle Reisch said. Columbia Falls' certified staff got about a 1.5 percent raise on the base and insurance contributions as well, according to clerk Dustin Zuffelato.

Bigfork staffers did not get a raise on the base this year, Superintendent Russ Kinzer said.

"I could see it was going to be a real tight budget year, so I made contact with the presidents of the unions and I told them I could build a budget one of two ways," he said. "One, just reduce staff positions in order to pay raises, or try to save jobs through attrition."

The union presidents supported the second option, so the district simply didn't fill positions vacated by retiring or transferring staff members. Union members did still get the wage increases that come with increased education and teaching experience.

In Kalispell, the 2 percent increase was granted largely across the board. Only negotiations with the district's maintenance department - a four-person crew - aren't yet finished, Glasser said.

For detailed information about Kalispell's budget, visit www.sd5.k12.mt.us and click on "Business & Finance."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com