June 23, 2026
By ANASTASIA PENCHI
DE SOTO Wis. – The De Soto Area School District will start paying its new teachers more money beginning this fall.
Administrators looked at the base wage salaries for new teachers in 11 nearby rural school districts for the 2025-26 school year during its regular June meeting. De Soto’s base wage of $42,600 was lower than nine other school districts – only Ithaca and Weston were lower than De Soto at $42,000 each.
Adding only the annual consumer price index increase every year – the amount allowed under state law – only puts the district’s base wage “further and further behind,” said Interim Superintendent Craig Gerlach.
Instead, he said, the board needs to specifically address the base wage.
Middle & High School principal Tim Fergot said new teachers today are typically more interested in wages than benefits because they can stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.
“We at least want to be where the median is,” Fergot said.
For the past 20 or so years, the district has provided health insurance with no cost-share to its employees. However, the board decided in May that employees will begin paying 2.5 percent of their health insurance premiums beginning July 1 to help save the district money.
That move came after a long board discussion about balancing teacher retention and fiscal responsibility. The board has talked about creating a salary schedule for teachers in the future, and previously added two bereavement days as a benefit for staff next year.
Still, two new teachers resigned in the district in 2025-26.
The average base wage for the 12 rural districts was $44,572, according to the district’s base wage comparison chart. The median base wage was $44,314.50.
The board unanimously passed a motion to increase the teacher base wage to $44,000 for the 2026-27 school year. This will give an increase to all first and second year teachers, as well as any other teacher earning less than that.
The district’s Business Manager Cherryl Knowles said the impact to the budget will be $3,075, which is already within the amount budgeted for the district’s salary projections.
The board also approved a motion to freeze the base wage for extra-curricular positions, which are paid as a percentage of the base pay salary.
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