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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — The Canyons School District says starting this fall, all their teachers will receive a $7,665 a year pay raise. It is a double-digit percentage boost for the third year in a row and it will raise the starting pay to $50,000 a year, the highest in the Salt Lake Valley.
Canyons School District spokesman Jeff Haney says they’ve had to fill an average of 280 open teaching spots every year over the last 5 years.
“We are faced with this reality, and the Canyons Board of Education is doing its part to elevate the teaching profession, bringing salaries in line with other professions in Utah, “said Canyons spokesman Jeff Haney.
This still needs final approval from the board of education and Canyons Education Association, but the board president announced it at a ceremony picking the teacher of the year Tuesday night at Butler Middle School.
Haney says part of the pay raise would come from the legislatively approved increase in per-pupil spending. The rest will be funded by a property tax increase they expect to pass this fall.
“The cost is about 12 dollars a month, and that’s equivalent to a Netflix subscription, or the cost of a few lattes, or lunch for two at a fast-food restaurant,” Haney told KSLNewsradio.
The board would first hold truth-in-taxation hearings in August for the tax hike, which would be about $140 a year for the average home in the district, which covers Cottonwood Heights, Midvale, Sandy, Draper and the town of Alta.
All of the funds from the proposed property tax increase would go exclusively to teacher salaries.
“We are investing not just in our teachers, but our children,” said Haney.