School employees to receive raises

All Oglethorpe County School System’s classified and certified staff will see a salary increase this year. The board of education approved the 2023-24 fiscal year budget at the board meeting on July 20. 

 

Superintendent Beverley Levine announced the increase to all staff at the end-of-year breakfast on May 23, but it wasn’t official until the board approved the budget. The board held budget hearings for public input on June 1 and June 15. 

 

“We’re focused on getting our staff paid in an equitable way, so that we can employ the best employees,” Board of Education Chair Becky Soto said. “We are lucky that a lot of our staff have been here a long time and want to be here, but it needs to be updated with retirements and a newer generation of teachers.”

 

This compensation plan costs approximately $600,000 for classified staff and $250,000 for certified staff. Soto said the plan is funded 100% by local revenue.

 

The Georgia Department of Education sets a state salary scale that local districts must pay teachers based on degree type and years of experience. School systems also offer a local salary supplement. 

 

Oglethorpe Couny’s supplement had two scales for certified staff, one for how many years worked in the district and one for years worked overall. 

 

The supplement was $600. Employees were provided $100 after three years with the district and $50 more each additional year. 

 

Soto said supplements for other districts could be up to $5,000. 

 

The new scale increases pay for paraprofessionals, clerical staff, bookkeepers, nurses and bus drivers by approximately $3 per hour. Paraprofessionals with 20 years experience made about $19,000 a year. They will make $25,219 a year. 

 

The county’s salary scale had not been updated since 1994. The lowest paid employee made $9.16 an hour. 

 

“The Oglethorpe County Board of Education recognized that there were some inequities in the compensation of our employees. They also wanted to recognize the outstanding job each of you do in supporting the children of Oglethorpe County,” a end-of-year breakfast PowerPoint stated. 

 

Soto said Oglethorpe County didn't offer signing bonuses, even if the system was desperate for a position.

 

The board studied other school districts of similar size across Georgia, and found they were “massively behind.” Director of Operations Paul Thiel helped research other school salaries and create the new pay scale.

 

“I have always known there was an inequality in salaries, and when they (the board) said it, I knew how much work it was going to take to actually attempt to change it,” Thiel said. “I said, ‘Let me have a crack at it. I’ll put something together,’ and then you can change it after that if you’re serious about looking at it.” 

 

Thiel said the board first mentioned the pay increase at a principals meeting last November. He completed the bulk of the research and planning from January to March.

 

“That’s where I can use my expertise, because I deal with data all the time, and pay scales are just another set of data,” Thiel said. “I had to do a lot of research in terms of other school districts that are similar in size, and what those folks were compensating for.”

 

Levine used his data to make the PowerPoint she presented at the end of the last school year. 

 

Thiel said his main goal was to bring equity and balance to the scales because there wasn’t a logical reason why the pay scale was the way it was.

 

“Some people, obviously, are going to get compensated more, but some of our pay scales, if you had worked here for 20 years, you didn’t get any pay raise after 20 years,” Thiel said. “And some people get a pay raise every single year up until 30.” 

 

Thiel set the new pay scale to increase pay by 1.25% through 31 years. 

 

“That’s really where the bulk of the expense comes from this first year, actually getting all those people back to that balance,” he said. “Now, it's set so that if they want to change or address it, they can increase the percentages or the step increase, or they can increase the starting salary of any of the positions too. Anybody can change it very easily now because it’s kind of set.”

 

Thiel said changes to the classified pay scale constitutes the bulk of the salary increase because it was the most unbalanced. 

 

“I liked the way they decided to do it, to reward people who have been faithful to the school system,” Thiel said. “One of our goals strategically is to retain good folks.”