Wausau Will Stop Using Seniority, Education As Basis For Teacher Raises

The Wausau School District is moving away from using seniority and education as the basis for salary increases for its teachers.

The district is hoping to get buy-in from union members for its new policy.

With the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10, local school districts are no longer bound by union rules that determine how teachers get raises. Wausau School Superintendent Kathleen Williams says her district is developing a new model which will no longer rely solely on years of employment and advanced degrees.

“We’re moving away from how many years you’ve been in the job as the driving force behind how you get paid,” says Williams. “Not every teacher gets better the longer they’re in the profession.”

The Wausau district has assembled what Williams calls an alternative compensation team, which includes administrators, school board members and teachers union representatives.

She says the team is working to develop a new pay raise policy that teachers will embrace. “How can I possibly attract and retain a high quality workforce if I drive them away? I want them to say, ‘Wausau is the place I want to live and Wausau is the place where, if I’m a teacher, I want to work’.”

Williams says the new model should reward teachers who stay ahead of rapidly changing technology and who are innovators in the classroom. “What I would really like is for us to be able to develop a model that other school districts could work from as well,” she says.

The superintendent says it may take more than two years to develop the new policy.