Park County School District 1 approved significant changes to the compensation of some district specialists in May. And, thanks to an external cost adjustment of $1.3 million handed down from the state, the rest of Park County School District 1 staff will see salary and step increases.

The board also approved a one time performance stipend for qualifying staff — 2% of their qualifying yearly salary. This was possible due to leftover funds from an underspent budget, Superintendent Jay Curtis told the board during a May 13 meeting. 

“We found ourselves with an excess of funds," he said. "We would love to have committed that to future compensation, but with the uncertainty of the recalibration process, also the uncertainty of the reduction in enrollment … It's just not smart business for us to commit that to future compensation."

What they can do, he added, is take care of their people now. The district believes they’ve done the best they can to keep up with employees but not inflation. The stipend is a small way to do that, he said.

The board tries to approve steps and lanes when it is needed, Board Chair Kim Dillivan told the Tribune.

"You're always fighting inflation, and inflation goes up each and every year. So we, you know, we try to compensate people more based on that,” he said, adding that they're fortunate in Wyoming lawmakers typically provide “adequate” funding to education.

One of the main goals of increasing compensation is to hold on to more teachers.

“When people have another year of experience, to me, they're more valuable than they were a year ago, and if possible, that should be compensated,” Dillivan said. 

The pay for speech language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists will be altered in order to stay competitive with neighboring districts after PCSD1 Superintendent Jay Curtis was made aware Powell was significantly behind average pay for these positions, Dillivan told the board in April.

These positions will see an increase of the base salary to $62,000 on the scale beginning with a master’s degree (a $4,750 increase.) Their steps will also increase by $50. Lanes for these specialists will increase to $1,300. 

Psychologists and special education case managers at the master’s level will see an increased base of $77,000 (a bump of $19,500.) For case managers this base increase will likely not be as significant to their current pay due to where they sit on the compensation schedule coming in to the position.

Certified teaching staff’s base salary will increase by $1,000 which moves a teacher’s starting wage to $54,000 (an increase of 1.9%). This percentage increase will also translate to nonteaching certified staff. The district is also adding $50 to certified staff step increases, with their lane movement remaining the same. The extra duty base for staff will increase to mirror the base for certified teaching staff.

For other PCSD1 staff, increases will be relative to that of the certified teaching staff. For example support staff will see a base increase of $0.30 per hour, Business Service Coordinator Mary Jo Lewis wrote in an explanation provided to the board. For life skills and severe behavior para educators the base will increase an additional $1 per hour, but it will continue to require the superintendent’s specific approval based on student needs; steps will increase from $0.50 to $0.55.

Substitute pay will increase to $18.65 per hour and after 40 hours it will increase to $0.50 more an hour.

The board will vote on final budget amounts in July.