Last night, after news of a $12-14 million misrepresentation to the state legislature over the proper amount to appropriate for Mississippi teachers’ pay raise, the Mississippi Department of Education has reached out to school districts for assistance to ensure all teachers are accounted for.
Per MDE, the following letter was sent to superintendents on the evening of April 24:
Superintendents:
The Mississippi Department of Education has received numerous calls from superintendents reporting that some teaching positions were not included in their allocation for the teacher pay raise. The MDE calculated the number of positions based on the code in the Mississippi Student Information System (MSIS) that referenced MAEP-only funded teachers and teacher assistants. Upon further review, it was determined there were additional teachers who were eligible for the raise who were not coded as MAEP-funded positions due to default settings in MSIS.
Please review the file we uploaded to your district’s SharePoint folder on April 23, correct any errors, and upload it back to SharePoint with justification for any corrections. More detailed instructions regarding this process are forthcoming.
In order to capture all positions that are entitled to the pay raise, the MDE will send you a list of teachers and teacher assistants who were not included in the original calculation. The form will ask you to note which teachers are paid by federal funds and to enter the percentage of federal funds used to fund those positions. You will receive the list and instructions by Wednesday, May 2.
Eyebrows were collectively raised statewide Thursday after it was revealed that there was a $12 million to $14 million dollar gap in covering teacher pay raises after a number of teachers were not considered in the original calculations.
Additional coverage is pending.
Courtney Ingle
