West Des Moines Comm School District

What the Numbers Say About West Des Moines Comm School District

West Des Moines Comm School District is a small-to-mid-sized school district in Iowa, serving 9,142 students at an estimated per-pupil spending of $18,157. Estimated average teacher salary — derived from instructional expenditure variable Z33 divided by teacher FTE — is $86,246, placing the district in the moderately funded tier of NCES F-33 respondents. NCES LEAID 1930930 references the FY2022 Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Finance Survey.

Relative to the Iowa statewide average of $82,484, teacher pay in West Des Moines Comm School District runs roughly in line with the state benchmark — a 4.6% gap, and near the national instructional-salary estimate of $82,292 (4.8% differential). Among enrolling districts in Iowa, it pays more than 69% of them. Licensing reciprocity, collective bargaining strength, and state aid formulas all contribute to where a district lands in these tiers.

On the budget side, West Des Moines Comm School District reports $166.0M in total expenditure against $162.1M in revenue, with instructional salaries accounting for 32% of spending — a compensation-to-budget ratio that signals how much of each tax dollar reaches classroom educators. Regular-program teacher salary outlay is $30.5M, special-education teacher pay is $6.1M. These figures are district-level aggregates from F-33, not individual contracts — step-and-column schedules, stipends, and collectively-bargained differentials sit underneath these totals.