By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist

This is the final column in a series of three where I have been summarizing key findings from an important report recently released by the Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission. The commission was appointed by the governor and tasked with a two-part mission to “1) Determine what constitutes competitive teacher compensation in Indiana, and 2) Provide recommendations for how to achieve it.”

PART 1: WHAT THE TEACHER COMPENSATION REPORT SAYS

PART 2: THE ‘HOW’ BEHIND THE TEACHER PAY GAP

Today’s column will focus solely on the 13 recommendations that school districts are encouraged to implement, as feasible. Remarkably, most of the recommendations are actions that our district has successfully implemented over the past five years. While this condition is affirming of our practices, our concerns are significant, as we find ourselves with very little left to implement on the local level to realize capacity for increased compensation.

1. Join the state’s pharmacy benefit plan. When Brown County Schools opened the Brown County Health and Wellness Center, one of the benefits of participation included a no-cost pharmacy formulary. Because our clinic is managed by a vendor with massive purchasing power, prescriptions are available to our plan at a remarkably reduced rate. Our health insurance program has been highlighted at state conferences as “best practice” and our reserves continue to climb. We have saved our district millions of dollars with the transition to the current plan design. It would be irresponsible to change the current plan structure.

2. Limit working spouses’ participation in district health care plans. We already restrict spouses of teachers with access to health insurance through their own employers from joining the district’s healthcare plan.

3. Exclude Medicare-eligible retirees from healthcare plans. We do not permit retired teachers to participate in our health care plan if they are eligible for Medicare.

4. Increase utilization of centralized procurement. Brown County Schools is a member of the West-Central Indiana Educational Service Center cooperative. Membership grants us access to participate in centralized procurement opportunities that provide significant savings. We have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars with centralized procurement of school buses, technology, and maintenance/custodial supplies.

5. Join a liability risk pool. We are already members of a liability insurance risk pool.

6. Right-size district teacher and staff ratios where appropriate. I expect to use this column space in the future to evidence right-sizing strategies that our district has deployed to a greater depth. For the purposes of this column, in 4.5 years, we have reduced 42 paraprofessional positions, 27 certified teacher positions, two central office administrators, and other operational expenses to a sum total of over $4,500,000. This is a significant reduction for a district our size.

7. Share services with other districts and external organizations. One recommendation includes partnering with higher education institutions to provide specialized coursework for college credit. We do this already with partnerships including Indiana University and Ivy Tech-Bloomington. Additionally, it is recommended to utilize onsite health clinics. Our health clinic was founded in 2018. We are also encouraged to share services with other school districts, and we do this with our cooperative agreement for special service delivery with Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation. We will explore other thoughts for interlocal agreements recommended within the report.

8. Implement additional best practices. The report challenges districts to reevaluate health insurance plans and emphasizes using health savings accounts. We have done both. Additionally, it is recommended to use third-party vendors for services. We made that transition for food service and substitute teachers. We are also encouraged to use our regional educational service centers which, as mentioned before, we are already utilizing.

9. Pass an operating referendum. The report encourages that schools use a voter-approved operating referendum to increase teacher base salaries. We already have an 8-cent referendum in place for the sole purpose of sustainability for the Brown County Career Resource Center (1 cent) and to ensure that certified and non-certified staff receive salary increases every year (7 cents). We have been faithful stewards of the referendum and have been able to realize increases in pay for every employee for the past five years.

10. Increase Medicaid reimbursement claims. This is an area where we need to explore how a small district may better bill Medicaid for certain expenses associated with a student’s individual education program (IEP). We need to better understand how federal dollars that are generated by a select group of students with special needs may be used to increase teacher salaries since the prevailing opinion has been that these dollars need to be allocated directly to the student with supplies, equipment, etc.

11. Increase private contributions through foundations. The preschool scholarship program is a great example of this recommendation. Through the generosity of private donors, the Brown County Community Foundation provides Brown County Schools with financial resources to assist families in need with access to high-quality preschool services. The report encourages us to use community foundations to identify methods for increasing teacher pay at the local level. This is understandable in communities with larger populations; however, it is a challenging ask for small and rural communities who are meeting the needs of the broader community.

12. Award higher salaries to teachers with high-need students and in teacher shortage subject areas. We already have this language in our teacher contract.

13. Improve flexibility for teachers to control their individual compensation through career ladder systems. Because of the $5.5 million grant award received by Brown County Schools in 2019, we are able to deploy a robust career ladder system with ability for teachers to receive additional compensation through master and mentor teacher roles as well as for all teachers through performance-based compensation. Several of the new teachers hired this year told us they selected our school district because of these opportunities for increased salary offered through this grant.

Of the 13 recommendations for local school districts, we are already deploying 11. The 12th (state pharmacy plan) is projected to be more expensive for our plan members, which is not advisable. One sole recommendation, increasing Medicaid reimbursements, requires our sincere attention as we move forward.

Twenty-four additional recommendations are provided for consideration by state government. We appreciate the support that Governor Holcomb recently expressed regarding education funding and are anxious to witness how recommendations included in this report for state government may translate in legislation.

We appreciate the work that was done in the creation of this comprehensive report and I appreciate you, the reader, for hanging in with me through three columns related to the very important issue of increased teacher compensation.

Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or [email protected].