wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > HB 2458 > Original Bill
The legislature intends to develop a salary allocation model that more closely matches the salaries of the teachers who are hired by school districts. To accomplish this, each school district will continue to annually report the experience and education of their teaching staff. State funding will be allocated accordingly to keep up with the increasing costs of a stable teaching force as they gain experience or attain additional education or degrees across their career and avoid creating disincentives that prevent districts from hiring the best teachers, while simultaneously meeting state expectations for class size.
Beginning with the 2023 regular legislative session, and every four years thereafter, the legislature shall review and rebase state basic education compensation allocations compared to school district compensation data, regionalization factors, what inflationary measure is the most representative of actual market experience for school districts, and other economic information. The legislature shall revise the minimum allocations, regionalization factors, and inflationary measure if necessary to ensure that state basic education allocations continue to provide market-rate salaries and that regionalization adjustments reflect actual economic differences between school districts.
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For school districts with single-family residential values above the statewide median residential value, regionalization factors are as follows:
For school districts in tercile 1, state salary allocations for school district employees are regionalized by six percent;
For school districts in tercile 2, state salary allocations for school district employees are regionalized by 12 percent; and
For school districts in tercile 3, state salary allocations for school district employees are regionalized by 18 percent.
In addition to the regionalization factors specified in (a) of this subsection, school districts located west of the crest of the Cascade mountains and sharing a boundary with any school district with a regionalization factor more than one tercile higher, are regionalized by six additional percentage points.
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In addition to the regionalization factors specified in this subsection, for school districts that have certificated instructional staff median years of experience that exceed the statewide average certificated instructional staff years of experience and a ratio of certificated instructional staff advanced degrees to bachelor degrees above the statewide ratio, an experience factor of four percentage points is added to the regionalization factor.
Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, school district eligibility for the experience factor under (c)(i) of this subsection must be determined based on staffing data reported by the district to the superintendent of public instruction as of December 31st of the school year preceding the allocation. By January 15th of each year, the office of the superintendent of public instruction must calculate eligible and ineligible school districts and share the list with the fiscal committees of the legislature. The list must also be posted on the website of the office of the superintendent of public instruction. The office of the superintendent of public instruction may develop rules to implement this subsection (2)(c)(ii) to ensure a consistent methodology for the calculation.
School districts eligible for the experience factor in the 2023-24 school year remain eligible in the 2024-25 school year.
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, for school districts not eligible for an experience factor under (c)(i) of this subsection, but eligible in the previous school year, the experience factor is reduced to two percentage points.
Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, school districts not eligible for an experience factor under (c)(i) of this subsection for two consecutive years receive no experience factor.
Additional school district adjustments are identified in the omnibus appropriations act
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To aid the legislature in reviewing and rebasing regionalization factors, the department of revenue shall, by November 1, 2022, and by November 1st every four years thereafter, determine the median single-family residential value of each school district as well as the median value of proximate districts .
No district may receive less state funding for the minimum state salary allocation as compared to its prior school year salary allocation as a result of adjustments that reflect updated regionalized salaries.
The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
"Median residential value of each school district" means the median value of all single-family residential parcels included within a school district and any other proximate district.
"Proximate district" means any other school district within fifteen miles of the boundary of the school district for which the median residential value is being calculated.
"School district employees" means state-funded certificated instructional staff, certificated administrative staff, and classified staff.
"School districts in tercile 1" means school districts with median single-family residential values in the first tercile of districts with single-family residential values above the statewide median residential value.
"School districts in tercile 2" means school districts with median single-family residential values in the second tercile of districts with single-family residential values above the statewide median residential value.
"School districts in tercile 3" means school districts with median single-family residential values in the third tercile of districts with single-family residential values above the statewide median residential value.
"Statewide median residential value" means the median value of single-family residential parcels located within all school districts, reduced by five percent.