OK School Districts Work Out Teacher Pay Raise Implementations

Oklahoma teachers walked out of classrooms back in April to advocate for pay raises and education funding.

Next month, the money they pushed for will impact districts when school starts.

By law, each public school will provide the pay raise starting on the first paycheck.

Oklahoma teachers will get an average of $6,100 each raise starting in August.

A possible road block was killed three weeks ago when the referendum to eliminate fundraising taxes for the raises was blocked by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court also gave their decision which cleared the way for districts to have answers to very important questions that meant we would be seeing those pay raises go into full effect right away,” state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said.

Therefore, each district must implement the raise, but many are still figuring out how to do that.

Oklahoma City and Mustang said they're still figuring out contracts.

Yukon said their first paychecks go out Sept. 20, and will reflect the raises.

Edmond said they’ll implement the raises starting in August.

Putnam City sent a chart to teachers explaining how their raises would work.

As for staffing, most districts in the metro say they're not having problems attracting candidates after the raise passed.

While the countdown to the first day of school begins, the Oklahoma Education Association said they're there to make sure the contracts reflect the raises.

"Many schools have not yet negotiated how the raises will be implemented. The OEA is working with our local affiliate bargaining teams and those who have discussions with their administration to ensure that everyone understands the requirements of the state-mandated salary increases and that districts meet the intent of the law," OEA President Alicia Priest said.