NEW ORLEANS — For the December 7th election, the Jefferson Parish School Board added a ballot measure that would increase teacher pay.
The measure is a millage proposal to address teacher shortages in the parish.
“The driving force behind why we’re doing this proposal is for us to try to make sure that we put ourselves in a position where we can provide a high-quality education to all of our kids,” said Jefferson Parish School Superintendent Dr. James Gray.
Dr. Gray says the proposal, if approved by voters, would provide $50 million a year to the school system for ten years, allowing teacher salaries to increase by $8,000.
“What we’re asking for will equate to a homeowner whose home is valued at $250,000 with homestead exemption- it would cost them about $15.88 a month.”
Dr. Gray says the shortages are a result of the COVID pandemic and a spike in retirements.
“So many people had years in that are at retirement age and in fear of their overall health with COVID, they just retired. So we had this mass retirement going on without the number of people coming into the field.”
Currently, there are about 100 vacancies in Jefferson Parish Schools about 3,000 students are without a teacher this year.
“We do have teachers that are -during their professional periods- who would go and cover those particular classes or we have substitutes in there where we have to have our master teachers kind of help and support and give them that guidance.
If approved, the millage is expected to take effect by 2026.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.