Metro Nashville Public School leaders debate giving teachers a raise above 3 percent

Metro Nashville Board of Education Chambers (Photo by MNPS)

Metro Nashville Public Schools District 3 Board Member Zach Young opened a lengthy discussion about spending priorities Tuesday night when he suggested the district might be more attractive to potential teachers if it offered a bigger raise this year.

The district’s proposed $1.3 billion budget announced by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell earlier this month includes $18.6 million for a 3 percent cost of living raise along with $9.2 million for salary step increases based on experience. The overall budget is a 13 percent increase from last year.

Board Member Zach Young (Photo by MNPS)

At Tuesday’s budget meeting, Young said the district could do a better job attracting hard-to-fill specialty teaching positions if the raise was higher than 3 percent.

“I think the only way we can try and continue to make progress filling positions is not falling behind on what we pay the employees,” said Young “I think 3 percent keeps us on track but I don’t think it gets us ahead to try and help us out and so I’m really going to implore this board to really think about, are we ready to make some potentially tough decisions to get to a 4 or 5 percent.”

Young suggested one option the board might want to consider to acquire funding for raises, is to cut proposed spending on programs that were previously funded by federal pandemic dollars.

The district received $423 million in federal pandemic dollars that will not be available moving forward. Director of Schools Dr. Adrienne Battle says the investments the district made with that funding drove important improvements in academic growth and achievement along with graduation rates.

The proposed budget includes more than $64 million to continue operating programs previously funded by pandemic dollars including those supporting students with college and career readiness, mental health support, along with other priorities like safety.

“What we’re hoping our proposed FY2026 budget does is to help us sustain the growth and the achievements that we’ve realized over the last few years and to continue to move the needle forward in a positive way,” said Battle.

It remains to be seen if other board members would be interested in reducing spending on these programs.

Multiple members, including District 2 Board Member Rachael Anne Elrod District expressed reservations Tuesday whether cuts could be made without harming the programs.

“I think it’s a fine conversation to have. Admittedly looking at it quickly I don’t know where we would find it,” said Elrod

Board Chair Freda Player also questioned the future costs of raising salaries above 3 percent, as that would mean even more money down the line for future cost of living (COLA) adjustments.

“Each year I’ve been on the board, the cost of COLAs has increased roughly about a million dollars. So that’s something that will go into perpetuity and it makes it tougher to make consistent COLAs into the future because we’re also increasing it,” said Player.

Any proposed changes to salary would need to be approved by the board this summer when it approves the budget.  The spending plan additionally needs approval from the Metro Council before the new fiscal year begins in July.