Johnson County school district at hiring disadvantage
BUFFALO – Based on the updated regional cost adjustment in the Wyoming school funding model, public school educator salaries in Sheridan County will be 3% to 6% higher than in Johnson County next school year.
According to a presentation by the Johnson County School District No. 1 business department, this puts the district at a “structural disadvantage” to neighboring districts when hiring educators, while not reflecting the actual cost of living difference between communities.
The RCA was significantly changed in Wyoming’s school funding model for the first time in over two decades, and is what determines the average salaries that districts are funded to offer. An updated RCA is just one change among myriads that resulted from the school funding recalibration process during the 2026 legislative session.
But while an updated RCA has been a long time coming because parts of it haven’t been updated in about two decades, district business manager Connie Gay said at the school board’s June 2 special session that the changes are a reminder to “be careful what you wish for.”
The RCA impacts how much funding districts receive to pay salaries, so while Johnson County teacher salaries will now be at a rate of 107, or 7% higher than the model’s base educator salary, all surrounding districts, other than Natrona County School District No. 1 and Niobrara County No. 1, have an RCA between 10% and 12%.
For example, Sheridan County school districts No. 1 and No. 2 will receive funding to pay teachers 13% higher than the base average educator salary in the model, while Sheridan No. 3’s rate will be 10%.
Even Washakie County School District No. 2, which serves Ten Sleep, has a higher RCA than Johnson County at 11%.
What this all means is that based on the average educator salary in the model, the average educator in Johnson County will make about $73,000 annually, compared with the average Sheridan County teacher salaries of $75,105 to $77,153.
And in the new funding model, districts are statutorily required to pay instructional staff in a way that meets the state’s calculated average for each district.
Trustee Dave Belus said during the meeting that he was doubtful as to how the RCA determined that the cost of living was higher in Sheridan County. Auzqui agreed.
“We shop at the same Walmart, our housing costs are just as large and just as outrageous as theirs,” Auzqui said.
The previous regional cost adjustment was calculated using a base level set at 100, the up-to-date Wyoming Cost of Living Index or the Wyoming Hedonic Wage Index computed in 2005, with each district receiving whatever was largest of the three.
In the former RCA formula, Teton County School District No. 1 had the highest RCA rate at 170 during the 2025-26 school year, while all other districts had an RCA between 100 and 109. Johnson County School District No. 1 had an RCA rate at 103, while Sheridan County school districts No. 1 and No. 3 had an RCA rate of 100.
The RCA formula, passed along with the updated school funding model earlier this year, is based on an updated 2025 hedonic wage index. A hedonic wage index identifies various elements in regions that produce cost increases or decreases for school districts to recruit quality employees, according to a report presented to the Wyoming Legislature by Picus, Odden and Associates, a school finance consulting firm.
Cost increases and decreases include such things as the cost of living in a specific area, demographic characteristics of the community and cultural resources such as theaters, museums and proximity to national parks.
The new wage index is why Sheridan County school districts No. 1 and No. 3 are now determined to have a higher RCA than Johnson County School District No. 1 for the 2026-27 school year, unlike in the previous RCA model.
Gay said the updated RCA may also become more volatile now that the Legislature intends to update it every year, based on state statute, and that could mean educator salaries would fluctuate in response.
“I think it’ll take three or four years before we really know how volatile it will be. I could be just blowing smoke, and it’s going to stay 107 forever,” Gay said. “But this is the one that we’re a little worried about because they are going to revisit it every year, when they hadn’t before.”
Despite a smaller RCA bump in Johnson County School District No. 1 compared with its neighboring districts, Auzqui said the district’s salary schedule prioritizes and still manages to give a raise to all educators on the pay scale.
“Our salary schedule benefits teachers who have more experience,” he said. “... We have some veteran staff, so supporting them, protecting them, it was intentional.”
This story was published on July 2, 2026.
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