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Teachers in Jessamine County get 1-percent raise for '12-'13

May 23, 2012|By Jonathan Kleppinger | jkleppinger@jessaminejournal.com

Jessamine County public-school teachers will get a small raise in the fall for the second year in a row after the board of education approved the 2012-2013 salary schedules Monday night.

The 1-percent increase accompanies “step” increases for experience, meaning the average raise will be 2.32 percent for retained teachers.

The board gave a 2-percent raise last year that totaled an average of 3.34 percent with step increases — the largest net increase since 2007-2008. Chairman Eugene Peel admitted Monday that he doesn’t think next year’s raise is enough to match the effort of the teachers.

“I look back at some of the increases that we’ve been able to give over the years, and you just haven’t seen one of those that jumps out and really gets you that you can hang your hat on and say, ‘Boy, we did a nice job there,’” he said. “We’re not real excited about what we did, but at least we tried ... Surely we’ll be able to do more one of these days.”

Jessamine County Schools’ teacher pay scale ranked 36th among 120 county districts in Kentucky in 2011-2012 while actual salaries paid were 93rd, according to a report by human-resources senior consultant Richard Glenn Harden.

Superintendent Lu Young said the difference is because of the retirement of more-expensive experienced teachers and the hiring of less-expensive new teachers. Young said that allocating positions to schools (called full-time equivalencies) instead of dollars is a good safeguard against hiring cheaper teachers to save money.

“That’s a much better way to deal with it, because you don’t want to have to be counting pennies when you’re choosing a teacher for the position; you want to have the ability to hire the very best applicant for the job, and the full-time-equivalency model does that,” she said.

The 1-percent raise also applies to support staff and extra-duty positions. The average increase for administrators, including experience credit, is 1.70 percent.

Other items approved Monday by the board included:

• the second reading of an amended graduation-requirement policy that will eliminate the tabulation of class rank starting with the class of 2014.

• the first reading of the 2012-2013 athletic coaches’ handbook, which has undergone a thorough renovation this year.

• the tentative working budget for 2012-2013, with a contingency of about 9.55 percent.

• the low bid of $57,000 from Jarboe Construction for the replacement of the West Jessamine High School gym ceiling.

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