Long Division – Teacher Supplement Increase Approved

You remember long division, yes?  In this instance, the math goes something like this:  How much of a teacher supplement increase can $3.75 million provide for just about 10,000 teachers?

The short answer is: about $375.  Per year.  Pre-tax.  Which, divided over 10 months, equals about $37.50 per month.

Now check your work.  And consider additional options.  Perhaps you’d like to provide some priority for teachers in your most hard to hire area: special education.  And maybe you’d like to provide some priority for those teachers who are receiving the least increase (or no increase) in the new teacher salary schedules.  And then you might want to consider whether to provide the supplement increase to all certified teachers, or only those who assess student work.

Ah, yes.  Long division – embedded in a word problem.

The Wake County school board checked their math, acknowledged their priorities, checked their math again, and after several months of reviewing options, made their decision.

All certified teachers will receive a supplement increase, with larger increases going to special education teachers and teachers with 25 or more years of experience.  The increases will be retroactive to the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year.

The $3.75 million was provided by the Wake County Commissioners to boost teacher supplement salary.  And school board members made sure to thank the commissioners for, as Kevin Hill noted, “the dilemma of how to figure this out.”

Happy little word problems.  If only Bob Ross had been a math teacher.