Great Falls Public Schools salary schedule: how teachers move to a higher lane

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How is the Great Falls teacher salary schedule organized?

Appendix B of the 2025-2027 agreement prints a schedule for 2025-26 and one for 2026-27. Each has seven lanes, split into a Bachelor's Degree group (B.A., B.A.+10, B.A.+20) and a Master's Degree group (M.A., M.A.+10, M.A.+20, M.A.+30), with the plus lanes labeled in semester hours. Steps run from 1 to 18, and the lower lanes stop rising before step 18. The salaries are annual pay for 187 contracted duty days.

A teacher advances one vertical step a year after at least 135 days of continuous district employment, and never more than one step in a year. Teachers at the top of BA+20 or MA+30 receive longevity percentages built into the later steps, and teachers beyond step 18 receive an annual longevity stipend. Appendix B also provides a doctoral stipend and a National Board Certification stipend. Our guide to reading a salary schedule explains how steps and lanes interact.

New hires start at Column 1, Row 2 until Human Resources has their official transcripts, work verifications and license. Up to ten years of previous teaching or administrative experience in accredited schools is credited one for one, and step 10 is the highest entry step.

Which units count toward a Great Falls lane change?

Article 8, Section N.2 sets the size of a lane: "Fifteen (15) quarter hours or ten (10) semester credit hours of professional training shall entitle the teacher to advance one column to the right on the salary schedule." The rest of Section N sets the test:

• After the degree: the bachelor's must be earned before the BA lanes, and the master's before the MA lanes. Work toward a plus lane must be started after the degree (N.3).
• Accredited college: it must be granted by an accredited college or university (N.4).
• Related content: credits must relate to the teacher's academic teaching fields or extracurricular assignments, effective instructional strategies, or special education; or belong to a previously approved advanced-degree curriculum; or be part of a planned program for certification or an endorsement in another area. Up to four semester hours per lane change may fall outside those categories (N.5).
• Transcript wording: "Credits noted as Professional Development units, Continuing Education Credits, or other similar descriptions on the official transcripts will not be approved for movement on the salary schedule" (N.5(d), added in 2025).
• Workshop credit: college credit earned at a district-paid or contracted-day workshop, or at one attended for PIR or pay, counts only with the Prior Credit Approval Form, when the teacher alone pays for the credit and the college requires additional work such as a paper or project (N.7).

Two narrower routes exist. Work taken in special fields for which the college allows no credit needs the Superintendent's approval before enrollment and the Board's approval to count (Section M). Class 4B and 4C teachers in specialty areas can earn credit from verified work experience, at 90 hours per credit hour, or from continuing education at 40 hours per credit hour (N.8). A teacher may move as many lanes at once as the credits support (N.9). For the difference between non-degree graduate-level units and degree credit, see graduate-level credit versus graduate credit.

Does Great Falls require approval before you take a course?

The agreement asks for it. Section N.6 says a Prior Credit Approval Form "is to be completed and submitted to the Human Resource Office preferably prior to taking the course," so that HR can confirm the course meets the standards above. The form is available from the Human Resource Office. For workshop credit the form is a condition, not a preference, and for special-field work with no college credit the Superintendent must approve before you enroll. Given the transcript-wording rule, the approval request is the place to ask how a course will be described on the official transcript. Our article on pre-approval forms covers what to keep.

When are transcripts due, and when does the new lane take effect?

Article 8, Section O sets the dates:

• December 10, 5:00 PM: official transcripts showing enough credit for a new lane, filed with the Office of the Superintendent, move the teacher to the new lane with pay retroactive to the beginning of the school year. If December 10 falls on a non-workday, the deadline moves to the next workday.
• After December 10: the teacher advances in the next pay period, without retroactive pay.
• March 1: a teacher hired at semester time or returning from leave at the end of the first semester has until March 1, with pay retroactive to the start of the second semester.

Only an official transcript counts as evidence. The practical rule is to finish summer and fall coursework early enough for the transcript to reach the district before December 10. Our transcript deadlines article explains how to time it.

Do the same units count toward Montana license renewal?

Article 6 of the agreement reminds teachers that a Montana license renews every five years and must be renewed before the first school day after it expires; a teacher with an expired license is not paid until relicensed. The state accepts 60 professional development units, or a mix of units and college credit at 15 units per semester credit. A credit that the transcript calls a professional development unit can still serve renewal even though Great Falls will not use it for a lane. The Montana renewal section has the full rules, and the Montana state guide compares Great Falls with Billings.

Where can Great Falls teachers earn graduate-level units?

Every district, Great Falls included, decides for itself whether a course counts for the purpose a teacher needs it for: a column move, a stipend, license renewal or an added endorsement. No provider, university or website can make that decision, so the rules above come first, and written approval from Great Falls's human resources office is the safest record to have before you pay.

Article 8, Section N.5(d) of the 2025-2027 teachers' collective bargaining agreement says: "Credits noted as Professional Development units, Continuing Education Credits, or other similar descriptions on the official transcripts will not be approved for movement on the salary schedule." Many continuing-education courses for teachers are issued as professional development units, so check how a course will appear on the official transcript and submit the Prior Credit Approval Form to Human Resources before you enroll.

Because Great Falls screens courses and providers under its own rules, this page does not point to any one provider. Check a course against those rules and get written approval before you pay for it. Published prices for 16 providers are on Compare; check each one against Great Falls's rules.

Sources

1. Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Board of Trustees, Great Falls School District No. 1 & A, and the Great Falls Education Association, 2025-2027, including Articles 6 and 8 and Appendix B. Checked November 12, 2026
2. CBAs and handbooks, Great Falls Public Schools Human Resources. Checked November 12, 2026
3. Renew, update or advance a license, Montana Office of Public Instruction. Checked November 12, 2026

Reviewed November 12, 2026 by TeacherPayGuide editors.Report an error