At the January 24 school board meeting, teachers, parents, and community members gathered to advocate for the steps and lanes salary structure to be funded in light of the operating referendum. The referendum, set to be on the April 4 ballot, aims to bridge the gap between the district’s expected revenue and expected costs to prevent significant reductions in expenses. 

Historically, the district has funded the ‘steps and lanes’ salary model for teachers. In this structure, teachers receive a salary increase for the number of years served (moving up ‘steps’) and attaining higher degrees (moving over ‘lanes’). Due to a budget deficit resulting from increasing costs and stagnant state funding, the inclusion of steps and lanes in the district budget has been a repeated point of contention for the last three years. However, the debate is not whether or not the steps and lanes salary schedule is in place, but how it is funded. 

On paper, steps and lanes is funded by the district. However, for the last two years, it has not been funded separately from cost-of-living increases. Each year, the state publishes an adjustment to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This is calculated to reflect inflation and increasing costs of living. The SEA (the Shorewood teacher’s union) is allowed to negotiate for a total-base-wage increase up to the state-certified CPI percentage, which then becomes the across-the-board raise for all school district employees. 

In simple terms, steps and lanes have been funded separately from cost-of-living adjustments in the past. Now, its funding is coming directly from the cost of living adjustment. As a result, the district is still technically funding steps and lanes, but the wage structure has lost its defining benefits.

When steps and lanes are funded out of the cost of living increase, it renders the purpose of the structure obsolete – it becomes neither predictable nor equitable. The percentage increase for CPI is negotiated on a yearly basis, and fluctuates year-to-year. If a staff member doesn’t move up a step or over a lane in a given year, their salary will not keep pace with inflation, effectively amounting to a salary decrease. Further, as they are no longer guaranteed to have a base wage that keeps up with CPI increase, it could negate the reward for steps and lanes progression.

On February 14, the school board made a commitment to fund steps and lanes in the 23-24 school year, should the referendum pass. However, this is not a commitment to fund steps and lanes separate from CPI.  

According to Paru Shah, school board president, the Board wants to practice caution before making any commitments to steps and lanes. 

“To make sure we have a balanced budget, we have to be careful about what we promise. While we do commit to the schedule that they have created, we cannot specifically make any promises to them about CPI,” Shah said.

Community members, students, and teachers alike understand that this salary structure, uncommon among Wisconsin schools after the passage of Act 10, provides a predictable salary schedule and incentivizes teachers to pursue higher education, having the effect of attracting, developing and retaining the highest quality teachers.

Steps and lanes is highly prioritized by the community. Over the last three years, people have organized online and in real life, made public statements to the Board, and advocated relentlessly for the structure’s continued existence. The district is asking the community for $5.5 million for the next five years – we believe that Shorewood should commit funding steps and lanes for the duration of that time.

It is important to note that the Shorewood School District – along with schools across the state – is facing significant budgetary challenges. Part of that challenge includes the increasing CPI. The average annual increase across the next five years was projected in the district’s financial projections to be 3% – a number significantly lower than this year’s CPI.

“The CPI we are legally obligated to negotiate up to is 8.01% for the 23-24 school year. With or without the operating referendum, it would not be financially feasible to increase salaries by that amount without sizable reductions in other expenses. The additional cost over what we have already projected for increases would be approximately $1M for next year alone.” said Heather Heaviland, Director of Business Services.  

We recognize that board members must be cautious before making any commitments to future spending. However, we believe that in the case of steps and lanes, a budget item that has proven itself to be overwhelmingly supported within the community, a commitment should be made to its separate funding. This means funding separate from the cost of living increases. But if this funding truly cannot be found within the budget, then it is even more important for the district to demonstrate why by providing a detailed description of the budget. This is especially true in the case of a referendum, where community members are being asked to directly absorb the costs.

The district currently creates a budget in the format required by the Wisconsin DPI. We believe that an additional line-item budget should be released – an itemized list of where exactly the money in the referendum will go. This would provide transparency and clarity as to why certain budget items, such as steps and lanes, cannot be fully funded.

According to Paru Shah, school board president, the Board would not consider requesting a line-item budget to be released in the near-term future. 

“My pushback on people who want to look at a line-item budget is that we hired somebody who is professionally trained to do that, and while we all might be good at looking at an excel spreadsheet, that’s not the same as [Director Heaviland’s] job. I don’t think that would be a useful exercise,” Shah said. 

Heaviland also believes that a line-item budget may not be serviceable to the process. Heaviland cited concerns over potential speculation that would be involved. 

“The annual budget is something that changes every year. For example, we may have streams of funding available to us next year that will no longer be available the year after that. I wouldn’t want to put those things out there until we know for sure,” Heaviland said.

Further, Heaviland expressed concerns about equity.

“I am not sure what a process would look like to go through each individual item in the budget one by one, but I don’t think you necessarily get equality of voice in that process. Equity is extremely important in the district’s priorities, and our students most in-need are often under-represented groups,” Heaviland said. “I think our job as a district is to make sure that we align with our stakeholders on our priorities.”

We agree that the most democratic decision may not always be the right one. Shorewood is committed to equity, which must be preserved. However, we do not believe that this would be compromised by a more transparent, detailed budget. The values of the Shorewood School District are a reflection of the values of Shorewood – our commitment to equity extends past our district leaders to our community members. It would be a mistake to assume that inviting more community input would result in a less equitable decision. 

There is no doubt that administrators, board members, and community members alike only want the best for Shorewood Schools. While not everyone has a business degree, having a transparent budget plan serves to keep community members informed. The district is asking the community to make a crucial decision that will shape the way the district operates for at least the next five years. This is a matter that will directly affect many of our lives, and as such, the district should take every possible measure to allow community members to make a fully informed decision.