Board approves wage and salary increase

NEW LONDON – The New London Board of Education approved a 2.95% wage and salary increase for the district’s certified staff, support staff, and administrative staff for the 2025-26 school year, with the increases amounting to an estimated $500,000.
The board approved the wage and salary increases when it met April 30. Board member Nate Grundy abstained from the vote for the certified staff increase.
Discussion
New London Superintendent Scott Bleck told the board that the recommendation was for a 2.95% increase for all employee groups in the district. He said the recommendation was based of the board’s discussion on options for wage and salary increases at its April 9 meeting, as well as the discussion at three Total Compensation Committee meetings. The 2.95% represented the consumer price index (CPI).
Leading off the discussion, Board President John Heideman said the board has a history of providing salary increases that are equal to the CPI.

Board member Chris Martinson said normally an exact salary increase proposal would be presented to the board, but this year the Total Compensation Committee was split.
“But everybody felt that, regardless of their position of what should be done, that we would respect the majority of this board on that,” Martinson said.
He added that the committee approved budgeting for a 2.95% wage and salary increase. The committee could not agree on how to divide those funds up between district employees. He said two ideas were presented.
One option would be to give a 2.95% wage and salary increase across the board to all district employees. The other option was to give a flat amount to everyone who is a fulltime employee, with part-time employees receiving a percentage of that amount based on how many hours they work. The flat amount discussed was $1,850 for the certified staff in the district.
Heideman said he’d like the board to do a more research, and in the future implement some sort of merit-based compensation.
“We need to do something along that lines to acknowledge our star performers that give 120% every day,” Heideman said. “We don’t have a system, let’s be honest. We don’t have a system to do that at this time, but I would like to see that down the road.”
But for this year, Heideman said he agreed with how Joe Marquardt, SDNL business services director, presented the wage and salary increases.
Regarding hourly employees, Martinson said the board should do what it can to provide them with an hourly increase because the district is “bleeding loss of employees,” especially PARA and special education employees.
Certified staff
According to the Topic Summary Sheet (TSS) in the board packet, New London’s certified teacher pay ranges from $45,000-$88,106. An increase of 2.95% would mean increases in the range of $1,328-$2,599, depending on the teacher’s current salary.
Total working days is currently 187 days.
Support staff
According to the TSS, 34 of the 95 hourly support staff are eligible for a level increase. Employees already at level 3 would receive a $.60 cent increase.
“The levels are set up to reward staff for retention and doesn’t start a new employee at the same level as an experienced employee in the support group,” it was stated in the TSS. “Unless approved by the board, all staff begin at Level 1.”
Administrative staff
According the TSS, the district administrator reviews the recommended individual wage increases with the board, and will follow that procedure this year.
“Those specific wages are considered by the board after review by the District Administrator of each administrator’s performance,” it was stated in the TSS.
Budget impact
The approved wage and salary increases would amount to an estimated $500,000 plus fringe benefits. Certified staff would receive $312,925 plus fringe benefits, support staff would receive $106,000 plus fringe benefits, and administrative staff would receive $32,275 plus fringe benefits.