Teachers up for 20 percent pay hike

Douglas County School District educators will ring in the New Year with a 20-percent raise, thanks to Senate Bill 231 funds.

On Dec. 13, Interim Superintendent of Schools Jeannie Dwyer and Executive Director of Human Resources Adam Dedmon went before the Interim Finance Committee of the Nevada Legislature to seek allocation of the funds, which was approved unanimously by the committee.

The bill was proposed in March as a salary matching program for certain positions within school districts in Nevada to help budget salary increases.

The bill was passed June 4 and school districts were encouraged to apply by submitting detailed documentation including budgeted salaries of teachers and education support professionals for Fiscal Years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 and the number of educators currently employed by the district.

Out of the nine school districts that presented to the Interim Finance Committee, only five were approved including Douglas.

Dedmon said Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro applauded the presentation he and Dwyer brought before the committee in representing the Douglas County School District.

“Thank you for understanding the intent of this bill,” said Cannizzaro. “I think this is exactly what we were intending to do. The fact that you want to give people more money is very impressive.”

Under the proposed program, $250 million from the State General Fund went to the Interim Finance Committee for allocation to school districts for the support of public schools.

Douglas County School District requested $4.5 million of those funds for the next two years, which will be broken down and allocated to employees in addition to the 11 percent and 4 percent raises negotiated in the fall.

“The district and our bargaining teams worked hard to ensure an 11 percent raise for this year and a 4 percent for next,” said Dedmon. “Once we had those raises confirmed in the agreements, then we moved forward with our plan to give everyone an additional 4.4 percent on top of those. With all that rolled together, that works out to a 20 percent raise by the end of the 24-25 school year.”

Dedmon said Douglas plans to cooperate with other school districts and state leaders to advocate for the continued funding of SB 231 beyond the 24-25 school year.

“All of the educators in our district deserve this compensation and recognition for their important work,” he said.