Highland School Board works on new pay scale

Monterey, Va. – Highland County School Board meeting, Monday, November 12, 2012, 7 PM in the high school library.

At its meeting Monday evening, the Highland County School Board took the first step toward putting all school employees on a new pay scale that more accurately reflects their years of service. The Highland County Education Association has been asking for such a change for several years. Superintendent Dr. Will Crawford made the request to the Board.

“Mr. Chairman, about a month ago, we presented the Board with a pay scale and a few days after the last Board meeting, sent by email an implementation plan,” said Dr. Crawford. “We would ask, if the Board has had sufficient time to review both the pay scale and the plan, we would ask the Board to consider acting on that tonight as well,” he said.

In addition to the teachers, the secretaries, teaching assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers will be covered by this new pay scale. Dr. Crawford explains some of the details of the scale.

“Mr. Chairman, on the employee pay scale, minus the teacher pay scale, you have before you a pay scale that shows pay for the categories listed,” said Dr. Crawford. “We would ask the Board to allow us to use the pay scale and implement it in the following fashion. One, we would ask that teachers be moved to their correct pay scale, based on their number of years of experience. Two, we would ask that TA’s be moved to their correct pay scale based on their experience. Thirdly, we would ask that the other employees listed be moved to the pay scale at the closest step to their current pay and then be moved up one. And we would ask that this be effective January 1, 2013,” he said.

School Board Chairman John Moyers expressed his concerns about the effects of implementing this new pay scale on the school budget. This change will add about $40,000 to the school budget. The school also has to pay more into the Virginia State Retirement System over the next five years. So work on upcoming school budgets will have to account for these salary and benefits increases. The Board then voted to approve the new salary scale.
In other business, the Board discussed the current status of the Appalachian Regional Commission grant to fund replacing the school windows. Dr. Crawford described where the grant stands as of this month.

“The Board of Supervisors reminded us that there is a matching part to that, and it appears that the matching part of that grant is going to be a little bit higher than they had originally anticipated,” said Dr. Crawford. “But I think everybody agreed that night that we needed to have the proposals out early, that this project definitely needs to be done in the summer, and that they were going to re-apply for the grant,” he said.

School Board member Joe Neil emphasized the need to be ready to get the project underway as soon as the grant funds are available so the work can be completed during the summer.

The next regular meeting of the Highland County School Board will be Monday, December 10 at 7 PM in the high school library.