School district to give first raises

Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District employees will be getting an across-the-board pay raise in the 2019-20 school year -- their first general raise since the district separated from the Pulaski County Special School District in July 2016.

The Jacksonville district's School Board, acting on the recommendations of Superintendent Bryan Duffie, voted 7-0 for the increase to the salary schedule and then approved, with another 7-0 vote, a $500 bonus to be paid in September to all employees.

The board votes on salary matters came during a meeting in which it also approved plans for a newly centralized alternative learning program to be housed in leased space away from the traditional campuses and operated by the Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative.

The Jacksonville district's starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience will be $38,500 in the coming year, up from $38,000 this school year. The top salary for a teacher with at least 28 years of experience and a master's degree plus 30 additional education hours will be $58,000.

Many of the district's current teachers will receive increases of as much as $1,550 in pay over the course of the coming school year -- the $500 bonus, a $500 increase to each spot on the salary schedule and a $50 increase to what has been a $500 step increase that eligible teachers almost automatically receive annually for their additional year of experience.

Veteran teachers who have reached the top of the salary schedule are ineligible for the experience step, however, which will now be $550.

Support service employees who are not state-licensed educators also will see raises to their salary schedules of about 1.3 percent, capped at $500, Duffy said.

The district has provided bonuses and made some adjustments in the salary schedule in the past years. But Duffy said the new district that was carved out of the Pulaski County Special district had to stabilize before general increases could be made to salaries.

"We made a commitment as a district to get three years under our belt," Duffy said about district operations after Monday's meeting. "But we also were doing everything we could not to go into year four without doing something for employees. "

He said the pairing of the bonus with the raise will put some money in the hands of employees quickly, since the raise will be spread out over the course of the year.

"We want to remain competitive with districts our size and then, of course, compete with the bigger districts, if we can, given our location" near some of the largest districts in the state, he said. "Our beginning salary is decent but we lose ground when [teachers] hit year eight or nine. Anything we can do to enhance the whole schedule will help us in the long run."

The Jacksonville district has about 3,900 students in kindergarten through 12th grades.

Duffy said he anticipates using increases the district receives in state per-pupil funding and earmarked state and federal funds for the $807,000 cost of the raises and bonuses.

The newly approved salary plans also include an increase in stipends for hard-to-hire special education teachers and for the two new categories of state-licensed teachers: lead teachers and master teachers.

Also Monday, the School Board approved leasing 12,000 square feet of a former furniture store at 700 John Harden Drive to house a new alternative education program.

The centralized alternative education program will serve as many as 120 sixth- through 12th-graders who are not successful in traditional classrooms or need to catch up on credits to graduate. The Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative will provide the staff and technology for the program as well as "wrap-around" support services for students.

The school district will pay the $3,200 a month rent and the $556,800 cost of the educational program with a combination of operating/building funds and state funding for alternative education program.

Daniel Gray, a member of the school board and a real estate agent who is the listing agent for the sale of the John Harden Drive building, didn't participate in the vote on the building lease.

Metro on 04/02/2019

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