Jefferson City Public School officials dispute a national report that lists the city as having the second worst high school teacher salaries in the nation.
The study was published online by a website called StartClass, using research by the website Graphiq.
Graphiq did not respond to a News Tribune question about how they reached their conclusions.
The StartClass report, titled "The 25 Worst-Paying Cities for High School Teachers," said Jefferson City's "average high school teacher salary is $38,930."
But the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, using numbers submitted by school district officials each year, reports the district's average high school teacher salary in 2015 was $47,899 - $8,969 higher than the number reported by StartClass.
The DESE information said the teacher salary average was $50,010 in 2015, when extended contracts and extra duty pay are included.
The StartClass report said it had "compiled all the public data available on educators' salaries and found the 25 cities where high school teachers received the lowest annual salaries in 2014, according to an update from the Bureau of Labor statistics in spring 2015."
The DESE report showed Jefferson City's average teachers salary in 2014 was $47,630, and $50,100 when extended contracts and extra duty pay are included.
"It's very frustrating," Chief Financial Officer Jason Hoffman told the News Tribune Wednesday afternoon. "We're very proud - and we brag a lot - that we offer one of the best, if not the best, salary and benefit packages in Mid-Missouri.
"That's a goal that we have, so that we can recruit and retain the best staff possible - and we're able to do that, even though we're spending $1,200 less per pupil than the state average."
Hoffman points to a Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) study of nearly 60 school districts in the state's Central Region - which extends from Lafayette and Johnson counties, just east of Kansas City, to Gasconade County on the east, and from Camden County on the south to Boone and Callaway counties in the north.
That report for the 2014-15 school year shows Jefferson City's starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is $35,500 - third in the region, behind School of the Osage, $35,850, and Camdenton, $35,634.
Columbia's Public Schools were fifth in that list, at $34,353 - behind Knob Noster in Johnson County, at $34,450.
The MSTA list shows Jefferson City's starting salary for someone with a master's degree is $39,770 - second in the region, behind only the School of the Osage, at $40,750.
The DESE report says 61.6 percent of Jefferson City's teachers had a master's degree, or higher, in 2015.
The MSTA reported a maximum salary for a Jefferson City teacher is $68,826 a year - again second, behind Warrensburg's $71,932 top salary.
The DESE report said Jefferson City teachers average 12.8 years experience, which is down from 15.1 years in 2010.
Jefferson City's salaries haven't been a big issue in recruiting teachers, Hoffman said.
"We don't feel like we can, or need, to compete with the metro areas," he said. "There's no doubt that there's higher pay in St. Louis and Kansas City.
"But for people who are going to live in Mid-Missouri, we want this to be a destination job - and we get 2,000 applicants for 60 or 70 openings, so we feel like we're getting the cream of the crop, every year."