By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – The North Dakota School Boards Association will be pushing to allow incentive payments to attract teachers to difficult to fill positions.
The Association says those payments and salaries would be off the established district salary schedule.
NDSBA executive director Jon Martinson says it gives school boards more hiring flexibility -- something the current schedules do not.
"The traditional salary schedule is an outdated relic of an era that has passed us," said Martinson. "It just doesn't work any more."
The North Dakota Education Association does not support that concept. NDEA president Gloria Lokken says the negotiated salary schedules provide incentives for teachers to continue their education -- and rewards teachers for staying in a school district.
"When you start arbitrarily paying this person more for a particular skill, you don't have a system," Lokken said. "People are on their own, and not working as a unit."
Lokken says it brings stability and order to how districts pay teachers.