Gwinnett County Public Schools Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks updated community and business leaders Wednesday on a teacher pay plan he hopes will help recruit and retain the best teachers.
District administrators are working on a teacher compensation system they hope to have in place by the start of the 2017-18 school year, Wilbanks said in his annual State of the District address, organized by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.
Wilbanks said the plan must be competitive with other metro Atlanta school districts. The starting pay for a Gwinnett teacher with a bachelor’s degree and a professional certificate is about $42,000 a year, which is lower than several area districts. Average pay for all Gwinnett teachers is behind other area districts such as Atlanta, Buford, Cobb and Marietta, according to state data.
Wilbanks said current teachers “will not lose pay” once the new pay scale is implemented.
Wilbanks also said the plan must “reward teachers who are delivering superior performance.”
Gwinnett currently has about 10,500 teachers.
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