School district overhead costs need to be lowered, says South Dakota teacher compensation panel

Aug. 21—PIERRE, S.D. — Teacher salaries in South Dakota have not been adjusted to match inflation.

The result: South Dakota teachers average some of the lowest salaries in the nation, dragging thousands of dollars behind the next lowest states.

One way lawmakers hope to empower school districts to pay their teachers more is by addressing those districts’ exorbitantly inflated overhead costs.

That was a conclusion made by lawmakers on the South Dakota Teacher Compensation Review Board, who voted to direct the state Department of Education to develop an accountability standard for teacher compensation in the state of South Dakota on Monday, August 21.

Overhead costs should make up about 35% of the revenue of the school districts, but according to the South Dakota Education Association, that percentage of revenue has risen to between 42% and 45%

The TCRB panel is empowered by state law to “review teacher compensation, including comparable wage indexes, in surrounding states at the completion of every two school years.” A report by the TCRB did just that, but board members were not satisfied with the salary comparisons based on the wage indexes of surrounding states.

If adjusted for inflation, this year’s target should be more like $61,600, said TCRB member and state senator Reynold Nesiba, from Sioux Falls. Instead, he said the target has not kept up with the consumer price index whatsoever.

“I think we’re setting our sights way too low when we’re just trying to be third from the bottom in our region,” Nesiba said.

School districts set teacher salaries, and while the DOE can set teacher salary targets, ultimately the school districts make the final call.

Teacher salaries in the state of South Dakota are especially beholden to the overhead costs of the school district. Nesiba asked Aberdeen Public School superintendent and TCRB board member Becky Guffin what overhead costs her school district was facing that was making it difficult to pay teachers the goal salary.

“Simple answer: everything,” Guffin said.

Guffin said inflation has caused overhead costs to rise across the board, including costs for insurance, non-certified staff like janitors and even natural gas for heating schools.

Teacher salary goals have not been adjusted for inflation. They have only been adjusted based on previous years.

The state of South Dakota is short nearly 50 elementary school teachers, and with the lowest average teacher salaries in the country, South Dakota lawmakers are trying to think of ways to fill these positions as quickly as possible without

There are a number of paths the school district can take when faced with open positions. Most commonly, 42% of the time, the position just remains vacant, according to data collected by the South Dakota Department of Education. The next most common option for school districts to take, nearly 35% of the time, is to pass on the duties of that vacant position to an existing staff member.

“If I were a superintendent with a math or science opening in July, I would be very worried,” said Joe Graves, the South Dakota Secretary of Education and former superintendent of Mitchell School District.

The number of unfilled openings for elementary school teachers is growing fast. In 2020, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota counted only four elementary school teacher openings by August. This August, the ASBSD counted 49 unfilled openings for elementary school teachers.

To fill these gaps, the TCRB voted to recommend to the governor and the state legislature to start working to address the high overhead costs of the school districts in South Dakota, which, in turn, would free up more revenue for paying teachers more.

South Dakota ranks 47th in the nation for teacher salary, with the average in the state coming to $50,592 per year,

according to data gathered by the National Education Association.

Board members agreed that they should continue to work to address other associated causes of teacher shortages, like assessing the number of working days required of teachers in a year as well as reducing restrictions for student teachers in the classroom.

The next Teacher Compensation Review Board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 15.