FIRST REGULAR SESSION
94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES SMITH (150) (Sponsor), DAY, DUSENBERG, WALLACE, SATER, FLOOK, MUNZLINGER, SCHOELLER, SANDER, RUZICKA, AULL, BROWN (50) AND ROBINSON (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time January 23, 2007 and copies ordered printed.
D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 168.515, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the career ladder program.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 168.515, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 168.515, to read as follows:
168.515. 1. Each teacher selected to participate in a career plan established under sections 168.500 to 168.515, who meets the requirements of such plan, shall receive a salary supplement, the state's share of which shall be distributed under section 163.031, RSMo, equal to the following amounts applied to the career ladder entitlement of section 163.031, RSMo:
(1) Career stage I teachers may receive up to an additional one thousand five hundred dollars per school year through the procedure delineated in subsections 3 and 4 of this section and an additional five hundred dollars per school year to be funded entirely by state moneys not subject to the local funding requirements of subsections 3 and 4 of this section;
(2) Career stage II teachers may receive up to an additional three thousand dollars per school year through the procedure delineated in subsections 3 and 4 of this section and an additional five hundred dollars per school year to be funded entirely by state moneys not subject to the local funding requirements of subsections 3 and 4 of this section;
(3) Career stage III teachers may receive up to an additional five thousand dollars per school year through the procedure delineated in subsections 3 and 4 of this section and an additional five hundred dollars per school year to be funded entirely by state moneys not subject to the local funding requirements of subsections 3 and 4 of this section.
All teachers within each stage within the same school district shall receive equal salary supplements.
2. The state shall make payments pursuant to section 163.031, RSMo, to the local school district for the purpose of reimbursing the local school district for the payment of any salary supplements provided for in this section, subject to the availability of funds as appropriated each year and distributed on a variable match formula which shall be based on assessed valuation of the district for the second preceding school year.
3. In distributing these matching funds, school districts shall be ranked by the assessed valuation for the second preceding school year per weighted average daily attendance from the highest to the lowest and divided into three groups. Group one shall contain the highest twenty-five percent of all public school districts, groups two and three combined shall contain the remaining seventy-five percent of all public school districts. The districts in groups two and three shall be rank-ordered from largest to smallest based on enrollment as of the last Wednesday in September during the second preceding school year, group two shall contain twenty-five percent of all public school districts that are larger on the enrollment-based rank-ordered list and group three shall contain the remaining fifty percent of all public school districts. Pursuant to subsection 4 of this section, districts in group one shall receive forty percent state funding and shall contribute sixty percent local funding, group two shall receive fifty percent state funding and shall contribute fifty percent local funding and group three shall receive sixty percent state funding and shall contribute forty percent local funding.
4. The incremental groups are as follows:
Percentage Percentage Percentage
Group of Districts of State Funding of Local Funding
1 25% 40% 60%
2 25% 50% 50%
3 50% 60% 40%
5. Beginning in the 1996-97 school year, any school district in any group which participated in the career ladder program in 1995-96 and paid less than the local funding percentage required by subsection 4 of this section shall increase its local share of career ladder costs by five percentage points from the preceding year until the district pays the percentage share of cost required by subsection 4 of this section, and in no case shall the local funding percentage be increased by a greater amount for any year. For any district, the state payment shall not exceed the local payment times the state percentage share divided by the local percentage share. Except as provided in subsection 10 of this section, any district not participating in the 1995-96 school year or any district which interrupts its career ladder program for any subsequent year shall enter the program on the cost-sharing basis required by subsection 4 of this section.
6. Not less than every fourth year, beginning with calendar year 1988, the general assembly, through the joint committee established under section 160.254, RSMo, shall review the amount of the career pay provided for in this section to determine if any increases are necessary to reflect the increases in the cost of living which have occurred since the salary supplements were last reviewed or set.
7. To participate in the salary supplement program established under this section, a school district may submit to the voters of the district a proposition to increase taxes for this purpose. If a school district's current tax rate ceiling is at or above the rate from which an increase would require a two-thirds majority, the school board may submit to the voters of the district a proposition to reduce or eliminate the amount of the levy reduction resulting from section 164.013, RSMo. If a majority of the voters voting thereon vote in favor of the proposition, the board may certify that seventy-five percent of the revenue generated from this source shall be used to implement the salary supplement program established under this section. 8. In no case shall a school district use state funds received under this section nor local revenue generated from a tax established under subsection 7 of this section to comply with the minimum salary requirements for teachers established pursuant to section 163.172, RSMo.
9. Beginning in the 1996-97 school year, for any teacher who participated in the career program in the 1995-96 school year, continues to participate in the program thereafter, and remains qualified to receive career pay pursuant to section 168.510, the state's share of the teacher's salary supplement shall continue to be the percentage paid by the state in the 1995-96 school year, notwithstanding any provisions of subsection 4 of this section to the contrary, and the state shall continue to pay such percentage of the teacher's salary supplement until any of the following occurs:
(1) The teacher ceases his or her participation in the program; or
(2) The teacher suspends his or her participation in the program for any school year after the 1995-96 school year. If the teacher later resumes participation in the program, the state funding shall be subject to the provisions of subsection 4 of this section.
10. Any school district that participated in the career ladder program prior to the 2001-02 school year but ceased its participation at any time from July 1, 2001, to July 1, 2005, may resume participation in the program no later than July 1, 2006, at the same matching level, pursuant to subsections 4 and 5 of this section, for which the district qualified during its last year of participation.
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