Brendan P. Walsh

The State of Michigan recently published updated financial information for all Michigan public schools and charter schools. I will be updating my Financial Benchmark Report shortly, but wanted to share this quick chart to show the change in average teacher salary for the Grosse Pointe Public School System as well as Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills Schools against the State of Michigan average.

The 2013-14 school year will prove to be the year with the largest salary schedule drop for the GPPSS and the results show an average 3.9% aggregate decline in teacher salaries.

As I always like to point out, this reflects a change in the average – not an across the board flat change. Many factors influence the average. Even though the salary schedule was reduced across the board, year over year changes in step and lane increases also affect the average.

Of equal importance to the average, on a year over year basis, the GPPSS employed 17 fewer teachers in 2013-14 versus 2012-13. Commonly as the number of teachers decreases, if teachers retire and are not replaced, this will drive the average down as well.

In comparison to the state, the GPPSS still ranks very high in average teacher salary. Among the 541 traditional public schools, GPPSS ranks 14th highest – one slot ahead of Birmingham schools. Both GPPSS and Birmingham average teacher pay is 21% higher than the state average and 7.6% higher than Bloomfield Hills.

I’ll close for now with the brief reminder that this entry and comments about teacher salaries are not intended to claim anyone is overpaid or not worthy of their salary. It is presented merely as a point of reference as districts struggle to maintain financial equilibrium with changing state aid and state mandated retirement costs.

We can be certain that now as the two most recent teacher contracts have run their course to return the district to 10% fund equity that the GPPSS salaries remain among the best in the state.