Why Should Delaware Care?
School referendums are the only time that Delawareans can have a direct say in their taxation rate, but they can also make funding schools more challenging. Just three months after Caesar Rodney community members voted to approve a $6 million referendum request, the district’s educators and instructional staff reached a deal with the school board for pay increases.
Teachers and other staffers at Kent County’s biggest school district are getting a pay raise.
On Tuesday, the Caesar Rodney Board of Education voted to approve a new contract for the district’s union representing teachers and other educators. It comes three months after voters in the district approved a referendum to raise an extra $6 million from property taxes for area schools.
The new contract includes a graduated set of raises and bonuses for district employees, according to a press release from Delaware’s educators’ union.
The contract will increase Caesar Rodney’s contributions to salaries for teachers and instructional staff by 14% to 25% over four years. But their total salaries will not necessarily increase by that amount because districts only fund about 30% of their staffers’ pay. The state funds the remaining 70%.
Teacher pay has been a nagging issue in Caesar Rodney for quite a while. In February, district officials pointed to it as a reason for voters to pass their referendum, which the district said would fund initiatives to retain and recruit teachers and other educators, among other things.
“Right now, Caesar Rodney teachers earn less than those in nearby districts,” district officials said then.
The need to improve salary and retention efforts drew some voters, including teachers, to the polls in February. Shea Brown, a Caesar Rodney teacher who voted in favor of the referendum, said then that the only way to “keep good teachers in the district is making sure that we have the money for it.”
Caesar Rodney Education Association President Jared Lelito told Spotlight Delaware that the pay increases would not have been possible without the successful referendum.
“We can’t be more thankful for the parents and voters and everybody who came out and voted for it,” he said.
While Caesar Rodney may not be the top-paying district in the state now, Lelito said he hopes the pay increase will help the district retain veteran educators.
It may also help teachers “make a hard decision whether or not to drive the hour each way every day to make $10,000 more.”
How are educators paid in Delaware?
Educators’ salaries are funded by a combination of state and local tax revenue, with the state paying approximately 70% of an individual’s total salary.
The state share takes into account a teacher’s education and experience. It also funds a pre-set schedule of pay raises for each teacher.
The local share of an educator’s salary is primarily funded by property taxes, meaning districts with lower property values generate less revenue.
Gary Henry, a professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Education and Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration, previously told Spotlight Delaware that, because of how the pay formula is structured, the state gives more money to districts that recruit more experienced and more highly credentialed educators.
“[Districts with more credentialed educators] are already given more money per teacher by the state, and then they add their local supplement, then you can imagine that it’s easy for them to recruit teachers who are willing to move,” he said.
Multiple districts have attempted to pass referendums in recent years in hopes of boosting retention efforts and better competing with neighboring districts. Unlike Caesar Rodney, voters in those districts rejected them.
The highest profile rejections occurred at the Indian River School District, where voters turned down two referendums in a row that sought money for ongoing operations.
The referendums failed even after Indian River board members publicized the district’s fiscal woes. At the time, they said that even a successful referendum may not eliminate a need to lay off staff to cut costs elsewhere, according to a report from Coastal Point.
To boost revenues outside of the referendum process, several districts, including Laurel and Indian River, chose to implement a 10% increase in property tax revenue last year following the completion of the first statewide property reassessment in more than three decades.
While the increases gave both Laurel and Indian River some financial flexibility, their school-funding equations remain challenging.
Like Caesar Rodney, the Laurel School District ultimately decided to hold its own referendum request in February. The district said its request would have helped to stabilize the budget and fund competitive compensation for staff, as well as other operational costs.
It was the district’s first request since 1985. Still, 64% of voters rejected it.
