ROGERS -- The Arkansas Arts Academy board approved a $5,000 raise for CEO Mary Ley and a $500 bonus for all other employees at a meeting last week.
Ley's salary will increase to $110,700 effective July 1. It's the largest raise she's received since she was hired for the job in 2014 at a salary of $103,000. Her contract runs through June 2021.
The bonus granted to other employees is on top of another $500 bonus they received earlier this school year. The school will have paid a total of about $80,000 in bonuses this school year, Ley said.
Arkansas Arts Academy is an open-enrollment charter school. It has about 80 employees and 800 students in grades kindergarten through 12. Enrollment is expected to surpass 1,000 this fall with the completion of the first phase of a major construction project at the high school campus.
The school has decided to postpone the start of the 2018-19 school year from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15 because of delays associated with the project. Those school days will be made up by eliminating two weeks of breaks -- one in the fall, one in the spring -- that had been part of the original academic calendar, Ley said.
NW News on 05/17/2018