Highland County School Board Approves New School Calendar, New Teacher Pay Scale
It didn’t take long for Highland County School Board members to get back to work after electing a new chair and vice-chair during their first monthly meeting of 2026.
The three-member board on Jan. 16th elected Vice Chair Sherry Sullenberger as the chairman, then chose last year’s chair, Jason Wilfong, to serve as vice chair.
The board members then got down to business, voting to return to holding closed sessions at 6 p.m. prior to the start of their regular monthly meetings at 7 p.m.
From there, the board moved on to adopting the 2026-2027 school calendar, which will now have students beginning classes on Aug. 18th of this year. The last day of classes will now be June 4th in 2027.
Schools Superintendent Nick Nycum told supervisors he favored the school calendar change because Labor Day comes late this year on Sept. 7th.
Previously, the school year would begin the Tuesday after Labor Day to allow students to participate in livestock shows and other Highland County Fair programs.
Under the new schedule, students would start Aug. 18th and will complete 12 days of classes before having Wednesday through Friday off for the fair. About 50 students who are required to attend livestock weigh-ins that Tuesday will be excused from class, Nycum added.
The new schedule, Nycum said, includes a three-day break for Thanksgiving, a two-week break for Christmas and one week off for Spring break.
Sullenberger, however, was hesitant to support the schedule change. She noted that many parents she has spoken with liked having classes begin after Labor Day.
And, Sullenberger added, she was concerned about students sitting in unairconditioned classrooms in mid-August.
When the vote went down, Wilfong and Board Member Kenny Hodges voted to approve the new school calendar while Sullenberger voted to oppose the planned schedule change.
Next, board members unanimously approved Nycum’s proposed 2026-2027 salary scale for county teachers, which is designed to help teacher recruitment.
In the past, county teacher pay scales were based on years of teaching experience. Each year represented a step on which a teacher’s salary was based. There were 35 plus steps in the 2025-2026 salary scale and teacher salaries rose a percentage with each year of teaching experience.
The new salary schedule, which has 11 compressed steps, increases starting salaries for teachers fresh out of school and those with 1-to-3 years of experience to $50,000. That dollar amount marks a 9.2 percent increase over the annual salary of $45,750 paid to first-year hires in 2025-2026 who begin after graduating from college.
Those step 1 teachers would be paid $50,000 each year until they have four years of teaching experience and move on to the next step with a salary increase.
In comparison, under the 2025-2026 pay scale, a new teacher with 0 years of teaching experience would have to work for six years before reaching a salary level of $50,000.
Teachers with 4-to-35 plus years of experience will see varying salary increases, ranging from 5.7 percent to 7.8 percent, depending on which step they are working under.
For those teachers with 4-to-24 years teaching experience, their salaries will remain constant for three years before moving to the next step and a salary increase. Those with 25 years or more of teaching experience will see their salaries remain constant for four years before seeing a salary increase.
The new pay scale, which affects only contracted teachers, is expected to increase the 2026-2027 teaching staff budget by nearly $100,000.
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