LISA Academy Public Charter Schools announced Tuesday a new annual starting salary of $43,000 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree and $47,000 for a new teacher with a master's degree.
The charter system that operates campuses in central and Northwest Arkansas is also providing a $1,250 payment to be made in the fall for returning teachers who worked at their assigned school campus this year during the covid-19 pandemic.
The upgrades to the LISA Academy employee benefit package come at a time when other school systems in the state have either topped or are trying to reach $40,000 in beginning salaries.
Starting salaries in Northwest Arkansas and in some spots elsewhere in the state are already $40,000 or more.
The Little Rock-based eSTEM Public Charter School System announced last week that it will pay its beginning, bachelor-degreed teachers $40,000 in the coming school year, which is an increase of more than $3,800.
The Little Rock School Board, which pays a starting salary of $36,000 this year and has not enacted a salary plan for next year, earlier this month approved a resolution stating its intent to pay a starting salary of $48,000 by July 1, 2024.
The LISA Academy starting salary of $43,000 is an increase of $1,500 for teachers in critical subject areas of math and science, Necati Sahin, LISA Academy's assistant superintendent/human resources director, said Tuesday. The new starting salary means a $4,500 increase for teachers in what the academy called the "non-critical" fields of art, music, and social studies, he said.
In addition to the raises in the salary schedule, the seven-campus system that will offer a hybrid virtual school this coming year is raising other benefits. Those include the employer contribution to employee health insurance costs. That contribution is moving from about $170 to about $200, Sahin said.
Dental, vision, life and short-term disability insurance by the charter school system are all being enhanced for employees, Sahin said.
Still another opportunity for the employees will be a $2,000 payment for teachers who undertake training and receive an endorsement to their state teaching license in the area of online instruction. The state, in partnership with some colleges and universities, is offering free training toward that endorsement in online instruction.
The LISA system is anticipating that it will have about 400 employees, including 250 teachers in the coming school year.
Fatih Bogrek, superintendent of the LISA Academy system, said teachers are critical to student achievement.
"We are investing in teachers who are shaping our future," Bogrek said in a statement. "We are grateful to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Department of Education for the additional salary equalization fund to cover some part of the salary improvements. LISA Academy faculty did a tremendous job this difficult school year and these increases are well-deserved."
Arkansas lawmakers earlier this year created the Teacher Salary Equalization Fund to help districts and charter systems with average teacher salaries under $51,018 raise their average salaries.