Charles City School Board adopts budget, adjusts salary scale for FY2015-16

Charles City School Board members formally adopted their FY2015-16 budget during a special meeting Tuesday evening.

Representatives adopted $4,806,568 in local dollars as part of the total $10.1 million budget. As part of the adoption, school board members went into discussion on how to allocate a two-percent pay raise for teachers and solve issues on compression on the school’s salary scale.

Options for application of those funds were first addressed during an Apr. 21 meeting by interim finance director Sheila Minor. She presented four options that included a straight two-percent raise for employees, an option for a one-percent raise at each step with a bigger reward at milestone steps (Option A), an option for a 1.1 percent raise at each step (Option B), and an option for a $400 increase per step with a $700 increase at milestone steps (Option C).

Debate sparked on the issue, with board members indicating their preferences.

“I want to see all the teachers receive the two-percent upfront,” said District 3 representative Martha Harris. “Our teachers haven’t received a raise in a long time, and I think we can look at adjusting the salary scale next year.”

“I like the option of giving the teachers a dollar amount,” chimed in at-large member Steve Fuhrmann. “I like options A, B, and C, but my preference would be for C.”

“I think we have had a serious issue with compression for years and I have been favoring Option A myself,” said District 2 representative Barbara Crawley. “We originally asked staff to look at this issue to help us with the salary scale.”

“While I understand how Dr. Fuhrmann and Mrs. Crawley feel, I worked for 30 years in government, with the last seven in the area of higher education,” responded Harris. “When the governor passed that two-percent raise a few years ago, the employees were ecstatic about it.

“I feel these other options wouldn’t be fair for our employees, several whom have gone many years without a pay increase,” Harris concluded.

After discussion, a motion was made to approve Option A as the salary scale for FY2015-16. The motion carried 3-2, with Harris and at-large member Preston Adkins casting dissenting votes.

Approval of the scale also calls for capping of the steps to 30, but employees who have already exceeded that number of steps will receive a one-time bonus of $400 at the beginning of the next school year. All returning teachers are expected to move up a step on the new scale and receive a salary increase.