Jefferson City Public Schools' Board of Education passed a budget Monday night for the 2018-19 fiscal year that includes pay raises for teachers and funding for another school resource officer.
The budget includes a $900 total raise to the district's teacher salary schedule, which equates to about a 3.8 percent average raise.
That means the district's base pay for teachers will begin at $36,900.
"We have a goal that we would like to have the best compensation package in Central Missouri," JCPS chief financial and operating officer Jason Hoffman said. "We know we can't compete with the metro areas, but if someone wants to live in Mid-Missouri, we want to give them a compensation package that says, 'Jeff City's where I want to work.'"
The base pay for JCPS teachers with a bachelor's degree was the third best this past year among the 77 school districts in the 17-county central region of the state, according to the Missouri State Teachers' Association's salary report.
JCPS's base pay this past year was $750 shy from the top. However, JCPS base pay for teachers with a master's degree was ranked second in Mid-Missouri - though with a wider $1,380 gap to get to number one.
The same 3.8 average percentage raise included in the 2018-19 budget will also apply to other employees, except for central office administrators, who will receive up to a 2.8 percent raise - with the exact amount at the discretion of JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum.
"These raises are not coming from the levy that we just passed (in April 2017)," board treasurer Lorelei Schwartz clarified.
Hoffman said the money is in part coming from savings in other places, but more so from the state's full funding of the foundation formula for public school aid.
The JCPS budget for next year also includes an extra $80,000 to cover the addition of one school resource officer, and to pay for half the salary of another officer at Jefferson City Academic Center that the city had been fully funding.
JCPS generally agrees with the Jefferson City Police Department that each body pay for half of each school resource officer's salary.
Hoffman said the additional SRO would be added as one to float between elementary schools. The district currently has dedicated SROs at each of its secondary buildings, and one that floats between its 11 elementary schools.
Linthacum anticipated that in two or three years, the district will want to have two SROs at Capital City High School. Jefferson City High School currently has two SROs, and Simonsen 9th Grade Center has one, he said - though Simonsen will close as freshmen students will instead attend one of the two high schools.
"We don't anticipate needing two (at CCHS) in the fall of '19 with just two classes there," he added.
The 2018-19 budget also includes a 15-cent raise in the district's operating levy to pay for the operation of CCHS. Requirements in state law meant the district had to ask for the 15 cents now, so as to have full access to the total 25-cent increase when it's needed.