ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
USD 480 will be continuing its recruiting efforts with a new program approved at the USD 480 school board’s most recent meeting Monday evening.
“This is actually a two-part approval – the first is the pay scale, we want to make it one unified pay scale for all pre-certified staff like the ones in our Grow Your Own program and similar staff members,” Director of Recruitment and Education Ashley Kappelmann said. “What is in place now, which the board approved previously, is an interim pay scale, an advanced student teaching rate, and an apprenticeship pay scale. This would take everything and put it on one pay scale so it’s unified and more predictable for those who are going through the Grow Your Own program. It also includes, on that scale, the benefits and other similar information, which really helps with clarity and predictability and consistency so everything is there in writing and everyone knows when they sign up exactly what their progression would look like. The second part of this is putting together a handbook for what we’re calling SEED, which was approved by the board in December 2022. This would be taking up to $300,000, or up to $5,000 per year, for pre-certified staff and give them financial assistance and support in becoming certified. The goal of that handbook is to provide a lot more accountability and a lot more structure to what we’re doing so again, we’re consistent and predictable and equitable so someone doesn’t go to the wrong person with a question and they get a wrong answer.”
Kappelmann said there will be many other benefits to having the handbook.
“With the handbook, everything is in writing, and there’s more of a process. Now that this program’s growing, it allows us to have a ratings system ahead of time from principals who have been working with them so we’re screening candidates who are coming in, just like any other interview process,” Kappelmann said. “Once we’ve started helping with tuition, then it’s a three-year agreement, and we want to make sure we want to enter into that investment. Another piece of that handbook is expanding who those financial support funds could be assisting – right now, it’s only for the teachers who aren’t certified but looking to get certified, and this would expand that in a couple ways. One way would be looking at our currently certified staff who have expressed interest in being part of the solution in terms of some of our shortages and high-area needs that require advanced degrees past their certification like counselors and administrators and speech language pathologists. There, we would take a look at what our needs are and expand things to allow them some financial support up to $5,000. Another part of the proposal is to use this as a recruiting tool – we would want to look at current Liberal High School graduates who have completed their teacher pathways, and assistance would be determined upon available funds per year, but it would again be up to $5,000 per year for four years, and they would be called SEED scholars. That would ONLY be for LHS students who complete the teacher pathway and are completing pathways in college, and that would again require a three-year service agreement. Also, it would be any LHS student who didn’t get that coming out of high school or any college student. I think this would be huge because students do start coming to those fairs early on. Doing this will also help predict what the costs will be because the students have to have a plan of study and graduation date, so we will be able to, as we make things more solid, forecast what the yearly costs would be.”
Members of the board praised the work and the program.
“I love this, I love how everything is so easy to see and how everything is laid out. All the steps are there, and it’s easy to see every opportunity,” Board Vice President Sarah Thompson said. “Everything is in one place, and I think that’s great.”
“And I would highly recommend coming up with some sort of PR and advertising not just for colleges but also people moving into Liberal so they all know we have this type of program available for them to use,” board member Mike Brack said.
After some more brief discussion, the board ultimately unanimously voted to approve the program.
“And just to be clear, this is not going to set any pay scale back, correct?” Board President Brad Carr asked.
“We did talk about that, and there was a meeting opportunity for pre-certified staff, and I did share this information with them. Currently, anyone who’s not on a plan would stay at one rate and it would have the potential to set some back, but anyone who was in that situation of making more money due to more hours of college, they have gotten on a plan since then,” Kappelmann said. “As things stand now, everyone who’s agreed to be on a plan would either stay at the same rate or at least not lose any money. Anyone who’s an at-will employee is currently at that rate anyway, so no one stands to lose money with this being in place. I have gotten some phone calls from staff members about that, which I completely understand, and we were able to ease their minds.”
Earlier in the meeting, the board had also unanimously approved the purchase of a 77-passenger bus from Midwest Bus Sales in the amount of $170,370 and a bid from Sunflower Restaurant Supply in the amount of $35,350 for the purchase of a portable walk in cooler/freezer.
