The Boise School District’s Board of Trustees approved a 3.25% pay increase for the district’s teachers for the upcoming school year.

“Our teachers are the ones who deliver on the mission of this district,” trustee Nancy Gregory said. “We need to respect their professionalism by offering them the kind of wages that we do.”

Beginning teacher salaries in the district will be $48,588, and the highest-paid teacher will earn $89,553.

Gregory said the teachers at the upper end of that pay scale are those that deserve to be recognized for their long-term contributions.

“We recently recognized some teachers who have been in the district for 33 years, 35 years, 36 years. Those people are the institutional knowledge of our organization,” Gregory said. “They’re the ones who help embed our culture with all the new teachers we hire, and we do have significant new hires as well.”

The negotiated agreement between the Boise Education Association and the Boise School District was ratified by the trustees with a unanimous vote that was greeted with applause by the teachers and administrators who were in attendance for Wednesday’s workshop following the vote.

Other parts of that agreement included:

• Two 1% stipends for all eligible employees that will be distributed in December 2024 and March 2025.
• The non-sports extracurricular salary schedule base was increased to match athletic salaries. Assistant positions were also added.
• Pay raises for substitute teachers.

In a separate vote, the trustees approved the contract for incoming Boise School District superintendent Lisa Roberts. She’ll make $210,978 compared to her predecessor, Coby Dennis, who earned $204,337 per year. She’ll become Idaho’s second-highest paid superintendent behind West Ada’s Derek Bub, who makes $214,965. The average superintendent salary in Idaho is $115,593.

Roberts has spent more than 30 years in the Boise School District as a teacher, principal, administrator and area director. She will begin her new role on July 1.

Roberts’ contract was quickly approved with little discussion. Trustee Shiva Rajbhandari weighed in with words of encouragement. “You’re going to do great, Lisa,” he said.

After the meeting, Gregory expressed her gratitude for Roberts’ service to the district.

“We have grown our own in the district over the past three superintendents, and with that has come a recognition that you need to pay people when you’re asking for high-quality professionals,” Gregory said.

Chris Langrill is a contributing freelance reporter with EdNews.