Copyright© 2001 by School Services of California, Inc.

Volume 14                   For Publication Date: December 21, 2001             No. 26

Computation of Certificated Step and Column Costs

During collective bargaining contract negotiations, the cost of step and column movement is one of the most debated elements. This is because most projections are done in the springtime when actual schedule movement for the following year is difficult to predict and opens to dispute many variables such as retirements, replacements, and column movement.

Assumptions about who will retire and who will replace them has a great impact on the net cost of step and column movement. In a mathematically perfect world, there could theoretically be no net step and column cost, but we rarely see such a situation in the real world. Picture a salary schedule with 5 columns and 30 steps that is populated by only one employee in each cell. If in each succeeding year the employee occupying the 30^th step in the 5^th column retired and was replaced by an employee entering the 1^st step in the 1^st column, and all other employees advanced in a manner that retained a single employee in each cell, there would be no net step and column cost. This would be true because there would be only one employee in each cell in each of the two years.

Realistically, this never happens. Employees move at different rates down and across the schedule, replacement employees enter at many points higher than the first cell, retirements do not occur in a regular predictable pattern, and district size does not remain static. In the end, a scattergram of teachers on the salary schedule changes in a way that is unique to each individual district.

The springtime projections and estimates done by most districts attempt to express mathematically the expected changes in the schedule for the following year and are an essential element of negotiations, but they may not tell the whole story. Now is the time to start building step and column projections for next year by creating a record of the actual movement experienced in past years. Next year may not turn out exactly the same, but a historical trend provides another factual basis for the estimate.

Districts that calculate the net cost of step and column movement for the 2001-02 year in the fall know exactly who left, who stayed and moved on the schedule, and who replaced those who departed. They can calculate precisely how much of the total salary schedule movement was due to step and column as opposed to pay raises or changes in the number of teachers employed. Looking back can help you to look forward. We encourage you to start building a database of past step and column costs to help build credibility in future negotiations.

—Ron Bennett