A big pay raise for educators in Baton Rouge public schools was debated, worked and reworked for years before it was finally approved last week.
The result in such a way that the vast majority of school employees are getting a raise. Teacher salaries, in particular, are getting a boost, increasing by an average of about $8,500 a year.
Starting teacher pay is increasing from $50,000 to $56,000 a year. On that measure, East Baton Rouge is vaulting to sixth place in the state and second in the capital region. Locally, only Iberville Parish, where teachers start at $60,506 a year, pays more.
The cost of the raises is estimated at $21.8 million a year, which the district hopes to finance through anticipated increases in local tax collections and future budget cuts.
As the vote neared, East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member Dadrius Lanus described the years of effort that preceded the vote. Lanus, who took office in 2019, is one of only three board members who have served on the board throughout the entire odyssey. He credited schools Superintendent LaMont Cole for making it happen when his predecessors could not.
โI applaud your team for combing through the budget, finding enough money, using the time and allocations necessary to see that we could get this over the line,โ Lanus said. โThis is not an easy process.โ
Board member Mike Gaudet, who took office in 2017, expressed similar sentiments: โWeโre finally coming to the spot where this is feasible and doable.โ
COVID, increased competition
The current multiyear push to dramatically increase salaries for school employees in East Baton Rouge can be traced back to former schools Superintendent Sito Narcisse.
Soon after arriving in 2021, Narcisse began laying the groundwork for a โbig jump.โ Narcisse had worked as a top administrator at several large urban districts that paid their employees much more than Baton Rouge did.
The COVID pandemic prompted many educators to leave the profession. Vacancies spiked. In response, school leaders across Louisian hiked salaries and approved generous stipends, leaving Baton Rouge further behind.
In fall 2021, Narcissse commissioned an employee compensation study, which was ultimately completed by SSA Consulting firm in Baton Rouge โย the original firm the district hired had backed out.
In June 2022, SSA called for increasing salaries across the board by 8% for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system to catch up with its local competitors.
โWe donโt measure up,โ Christel Slaughter, SSAโs CEO, told the parish School Board.
Narcisse wanted to go further. He called for a 12% employee pay raise that would be paid out over a three-year period.
โThat would make us the leading (district) in the entire state in terms of attracting teachers,โ Narcisse predicted.
New board, new fights
In fall 2022, voters gave Narcisse a new set of bosses, replacing six out of nine School Board members. After taking office, the new board immediately clashed with Narcisse on a series of issues, including refusing to immediately renew his contract.
Tensions overheated in mid-May 2023 when Narcisse submitted the annual budget. It called for a big across-the-board pay raise, but only for teachers, at an estimated cost of almost $30 million a year and paid for strictly by drawing down district reserves. The proposed raises fell short of the 8% target set a year earlier, ranging from 6% to 7.5%.
Several board members objected, seeking offsetting budget cuts as well as ways to give additional money to noninstructional staff.
As this was happening, Narcisse added gasoline to the fire by applying to become superintendent of schools in Fort Lauderdale, Floridaย โ he ended up falling short to a local candidate. To prevent Narcisse from leaving, his supporters in Baton Rouge urged board members to move quickly to renew his contract.
New board members resisted.
Carla Powell-Lewis, just four months into her term, said she wouldnโt consider any contract renewal until the board sorted out the budget and figured out how to pay for โsustainable teacher pay raises.โ
โI believe that it would be 'a slap in the face' to our teachers if we offer such an opportunity to Dr. Narcisse without confirmation of financially sustaining our teachers and the promises that have been made to them,โ Powell-Lewis said.
After two months of fractious debate, the board and Narcisse worked out a different strategy, using one-time stipends that would increase each year until the district could figure out how to pay for permanent raises. As part of the budget deal, the board finally started formal negotiations on renewing Narcisseโs contract.
New leaders, new approaches
Narcisseโs problems were compounded by a transportation crisis that dominated the opening weeks of the 2023-24 school year. In December, the board voted not to renew his contract, and a month later Narcisse accepted a voluntary buyout, ending a three-year tenure.
Longtime administrator Adam Smith replaced Narcisse as interim superintendent and pushed through a permanent pay raise of $2,200 a year for teachers, $1,500 for school leaders and $1,300 a year for support workers.
Smithโs bid for the permanent job, however, soon ran aground amid an acrimonious search for a replacement for Narcisse.
In July 2024, the board ended up hiring Smithโs old friend Coleย to become superintendent instead. Cole had started his career with the school system but had spent the previous 13 years as the chief academic officer of a charter school network in Baton Rouge.
When it came to employee compensation, Cole immediately pledged to pick up where Narcisse and Smith left off, an effort that took nearly two years.
Instead of across-the-board pay raises, Cole commissioned a top-to-bottom revamp of the districtโs complex salary schedule. He hired Huntsville, Alabama-based LEAN Frog Consulting. The firm analyzed the current schedule and benchmarked it against pay scales in comparable districts in ถถา๕h, Southeastern states and the nation.
The final $21.8 million price tag is less than what Narcisse proposed, in part because some employees ended up getting relatively small increases and a small number, dominated by Central Office administrators, received none.
Like Narcisse, Cole is relying heavily on district reserves to cover the initial cost. Those reserves, however, have grown since 2023. Over that time, local sales and property taxes have continued to bring in substantial revenue annually, outpacing projections.
Board member Nathan Rust, who was critical of Narcisseโs approach, admitted to being a bit nervous but said it is time to increase employee pay substantially.
โIt is a bit scary and it is a bit irksome to tap into our savings account, if you will,โ Rust said, โbut we canโt just keep socking away money as a system when we have investments that we know will impact the future of our children.โ