Success Preparatory Academy leaders have agreed that the charter school’s classroom teachers and support staff should get a three-percent raise.
School director Niloy Gangopadhyay supported the raise at a board meeting Thursday night, as did Daniel O’Connell, the director of finance and operations, and Ryan Bates, the treasurer — especially in light of the school having recently raised its performance score from “F” to “C.”
“Given the solid performance of staff members to earn a five-year charter renewal and raise SPA’s letter grade to a C, the pay increase will be an important tool in rewarding and retaining the talent that has created the results thus far,” a finance report read.
The finance committee will discuss administrative salaries at a later date.
At the meeting, Bates said the decision not only rewarded teachers appropriately, but was also fiscally responsible.
Based on 2013-14 salaries of returning teachers, the increase will cost the school a total of $42,882 in additional salary costs.
In other business, Gangopadhyay announced that the school has hired nine new teachers for the 2014-15 school year and is still looking for additional staff.
So far, the school has hired two kindergarten teachers, one third grade teacher, two Middle Academy English teachers, one Middle Academy math teacher, two Middle Academy social studies teachers and one special-education teacher.
School officials are focusing on student recruitment, too, by visiting Recovery School District Parent Centers and local Head Start/prekindergarten programs in the city, Gangopadhyay said.
So far, 88.5 percent of students eligible to return to Success Prep have indicated through the OneApp process that they intend to do so, according to a report by Jack Carey of the Academic Excellence Committee.
A Recovery School District “refurbishment” of the permanent location is very near completion, according to a facilities report by Shawn Preau.
Preau said the school district is moving forward with an acoustic remediation project, to allow for better soundproofing for the school. Advertisements for those bids are slated to go out May 16.
The Recovery School District was also scheduled to advertise for bids to repair the elevator on May 9, Preau said.
