Salary and Benefits

We feel proud of our benefits and compensation package, and we also know there are intangible benefits of our strong school culture and organization systems that contribute to daily personal and professional fulfillment, including:  

• Guaranteed weekly 1:1 coaching through instructional coach or manager whose role is to support each teacher in his/her development
• Guaranteed 3 plan periods a day for lesson planning, team meetings, and coaching with instructional coach
• Guaranteed only teaching one content prep a day 
• Guaranteed Dean of Students in each school to support daily with student culture 
• Rotating Self-Care Friday morning off for appointments, personal tasks, etc.
• Tracking PTO by hours, not by days or ½ days, which allows team members to maximize the 6 PTO days (60 hours) they have to use throughout the year
• Full Operations team that eliminates barriers for educators through owning tasks like supply ordering (books, materials for labs, etc.), leading arrival and dismissal, planning field trips, maintaining copy machines, providing on-site IT support, and providing other behind-the-scenes support designed to increase teacher efficiency

• Teachers have over 25+ vacation days built into the year when school is closed for national holidays and breaks. See the attached calendar to view a typical year-long calendar
• Teachers have a rotating Friday morning off once every 4-6 weeks. After supporting with entrance/breakfast duties, teachers have Friday mornings off for personal appointments, etc. and return back for lunch/end-of-day duties. Teachers use this 3.5 hour block to take care of personal appointments, catch up on tasks, etc.
• Additionally, team members have 60 hours of PTO for immovable events and/or personal time
• Unused PTO Compensation: Employees who remain employed through June 30 will be compensated in the July 15 payroll for any unused PTO from the previous school year, payed out at each team member's hourly rate
• Each Friday, students dismiss at 1:30 pm; instructional staff engages in professional development from 2-4:30 pm.
• Teachers do complete training in early June and late July/August. Teachers have 5 weeks of summer break time

• After a review of salaries among charter schools in the region during Winter 2021, Kauffman School updated salaries to be in the top 25th percentile of salaries offered among participating schools.
• Team members are eligible for supplemental pay for supporting with any after-school clubs or sports teams.
• Team members receive an annual salary increase of at least 2%.

• Kauffman School offers full health coverage through United Health Care (UHC) and dental, vision, and all non-medical through Guardian. Our employee premiums for these robust plans are significantly below market rate. See chart below with more information about rates. As a reminder, these are monthly rates, but employees receive two paychecks a month - to understand what you will be paying per paycheck for health care, simply take the monthly rate and divide by 2.  
• All team members are required to contribute 9% to the KC Public School Retirement System pension plan.
• Team members who elect to contribute to the Fidelity 403B will receive up to a 4% match by the school.
• Kauffman School provides Basic Life Insurance and AD&D at no charge to employee

As part of our staff and student wellness priority, all staff members will have access to Talkspace mental health supports starting this February at EMKS. We believe that taking care of educator wellness and mental health will impact our ability to provide equitable services to students and in turn support their wellness. This service means staff members will be able to select an ongoing counselor relationship, will receive two (2) 30-minute virtual counseling sessions a month, and have access to unlimited messaging with a counselor 5 day a week.