Mountain Middle School is raising its base salary and offering bonuses to teachers to help offset the cost of living in Durango.
The school announced last week that it will be giving its teachers a $3,500 pay bump as well as $2,000 quarterly bonuses.
“We are excited to be in a position to provide this incentive to all employees pushing our top end of teacher compensation over $90,000,” said Mountain Middle School Executive Director Shane Voss.
Top-tier compensation is typically reserved for teacher applicants with a master’s degree, Voss said. However, starting salaries for teachers with a bachelor’s degree have been increased to nearly $53,000, up from about $44,000 per year, according to the school’s website.
Five years ago, teachers with a master’s degree were making around $57,000 per year at Mountain Middle School, Voss said.
Mountain Middle School was able to provide increased teacher salaries through a combination of the state's per-pupil allocation, private donations and the 2016 mill levy override.
Mountain Middle School experienced an $799,543 increase to its operating expense fund, allowing the charter school to allocate more money to its teaching staff.
According to Mountain Middle School’s 2024 financial audit, about 66% of the funding came from local property taxes and state per pupil funding.
However, per pupil funding was only used to supplement base salary increases. Mountain experienced a $366,085 increase in per pupil revenue during the 2024 fiscal year. Mill levy funds and interest from the school’s investment portfolio contributed to teacher bonuses.
He said roughly 30% of the teacher bonuses were supplemented by mill levy while 70% was generated by taking surplus operating funds and investing and accruing interest. Voss declined to provide a specific dollar amount for those totals.
“It's been very difficult for some of the younger teachers at the bottom of the compensation framework to be able to afford a house in Durango and so we’re doing the best we can to provide that in a quarterly basis,” Voss said of the bonuses.
The high cost of living and lack of affordable housing have posed significant challenges for school districts in La Plata County. Many have been forced to scramble for funds to increase salaries and implement other strategies to attract and retain talented educators in the area.
Durango School District 9-R has raised its base salary to $51,500 annually, while Ignacio School District has increased its pay from $35,500 to $47,000 per year.
Mountain Middle School employs 32 full-time teachers and caps enrollment at 300 students. The middle school serves students in grades four through eight, providing a project-based learning environment.
Median home prices and rent remain high in Durango and La Plata County. According to quarterly statistics from the Durango Area Association of Realtors, the median home price in Durango has reached $932,000, a 17.3% increase compared to the third quarter of 2023.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Durango is $1,519 per month, according to Apartments.com. Over the past year, rents have risen by 4.7%, amounting to an average increase of $72 per month, the site reports.
“The MMS Board deeply values the hard work and expertise of our staff,” said mountain middle school board president Lorien Chambers Schuldt in a news release. “We recognize their incredible dedication to the families and students of Mountain Middle and hope that this will also help to ease the strain that comes from the cost of living in this community.”
Colorado has faced challenges in recruiting educator talent.
During the 2023-24 school year, 635 of the 6,911 teaching positions (9%) remained unfilled, while 1,756 positions (25%) were filled using shortage mechanisms. Although the number of unfilled positions decreased compared to the previous year, the use of shortage mechanisms rose from 1,486 to 1,756 – an 18% increase.
Shortage mechanisms include hiring long-term substitutes, retired educators, alternative licensure program candidates and emergency authorization holders.
Voss said Mountain Middle hasn’t had a retention problem, but he and the board are aware of the challenges ahead, as the cost of living continues to rise and affordable housing options remain scarce in the area.
The school works to retain teachers by providing steady pay increases for those who remain at Mountain Middle for five years or longer, as part of its legacy compensation package.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
