Nixa Public Schools giving teachers a pay raise

NIXA, Mo. — With the start of the school year about a month away for many local districts, Nixa Public Schools is raising teacher pay and adding additional incentives this year to help attract and keep staff members.

“I’ve been on the school board for ten years, and every year it’s been a 2% raise, 2% raise, 2% raise,” said Joshua Roberts. “And we really decided that we needed to make a commitment to teacher recruitment and teacher retention. And 2% just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.”

School Board President Joshua Roberts says giving teachers a more substantial pay raise was at the top of the board’s list of priorities this summer.

“So we gave a raise to our teachers. That’s going to be between a four and a half to 5% raise to every teacher,” said Roberts. “We also added bereavement leave that wasn’t there before. You had personal days and you had sick days, of course, but now we’ve on top of that added bereavement leave.”

According to the National Education Association, Missouri ranks near the bottom in teacher pay, which can make it tough for districts to retain good teachers.

“We have moved from a time when we need to stay competitive with other schools to a time when we need to stay competitive with the global marketplace because teachers are being pulled away, pulled out of the profession because of pay,” said Roberts.

Richelle Gipson is a 2nd-grade teacher at Century Elementary and says these new incentives are a win for the district.

“It just shows that they hear us. They care about us, they see us. You know, we’re valued here at Nixa,” said Gipson. “And all of the changes they made, not just the pay rise, but adding steps super impactful for our school district.”

One of the other changes the School Board approved last week will allow teachers to continue seeing raises even after 30 years of teaching.

“It’s going to keep us all strong. It’s going to keep those veteran teachers mentoring those newer teachers and helping them along the way as they’re learning the right footing and path to how they want to have their journey go,” said Gipson.

Students and teachers will return to the classroom on August 19th.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com.