The Mountain Home and Salem school districts will receive additional funds from the state to help improve the salaries of its teachers.
The Teacher Salary Equalization Fund, created by Acts 679 and 680 of this year’s legislative session, will provide Mountain Home Public Schools with $712,153.80 in additional funds for teacher salaries. Salem Public Schools will receive $154,907.90 from the fund.
Arkansas lawmakers created the fund earlier this year to help address the inequality in pay across the state’s 238 public school districts and 24 public charter school systems.
Schools with an average annual teacher’s salary of less than $51,822 were eligible to receive additional funds if the schools were not already participating in the Education Compensation Reform Program, which helps districts meet the states minimum teacher salary requirements.
The average teacher’s salary for the Mountain Home District is $50,383, while the average salary for Salem teachers is $48,916.
Once identified as falling under that targeted average salary and otherwise eligible for the funding, a district or charter systems allocation from the Teacher Salary Equalization Fund was calculated by multiplying $185 by the districts average student enrollment from the previous school year.
Teacher Salary Equalization Fund resources are to be spent only for teacher salaries and benefits, according to the state agency memorandum that was distributed with the list of districts eligible for funding.
Mountain Home Superintendent Dr. Jake Long says plans for how his district would allocate the additional funds had not been decided yet.
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Long said Mountain Home’s average salary was above the state average, but still below the threshold envisioned by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
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Fifty-two of the state’s public school districts qualified for the money awarded from the Teacher Salary Equalization Fund. All but two of the state’s 24 public charter school systems qualified as well.
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