School board approves raises

Teachers, support staff and administrators are all getting raises.

Jay School Board during a brief meeting Monday approved a new contract with Jay Classroom Teachers Association as well as increases for administrators and support staff.

The contract and other increases were mostly unchanged from when they were presented to the board and the public for consideration last week. The contract had been approved by the teachers’ union at an Oct. 14 meeting.

“I appreciate the way that things went,” said Jay School Board president Phil Ford, a former Jay County High School principal and former president of JCTA. “I think we’ve done a credible job of getting finances that were available out to the various groups of our employees.”

The school corporation’s contract with JCTA increases the base salary for teachers to $40,000. It also ensures that at least 45% of state funding will be spent on teacher salaries. (Those two details are now required by the state.)

In addition, all eligible teachers will receive a $2,100 increase in their base salary and a $900 stipend. Those increases come out to an average of a 4.3% raise.

Teachers who teach advanced placement and/or dual credit courses will receive an additional $1,500 per course (or $750 for single-semester courses).

The contract also increases the hourly rate for curriculum development, professional development, after-school tutoring/remediation, credit recovery and covering classes to $30 from the current $20.

“It went really well,” said Tavia Price, co-president of JCTA along with Darian Jones. “Everything worked out really well. …

“It’s been a little while since they’ve been able to give as much. I just think we’re moving in a good direction.”

Non-teaching employees will receive a 3% increase in their base salary. The board also approved increasing the minimum pay for aides and custodians to $11 and for secretaries to $12.73. Bus drivers, who had previously been paid by the day, will now instead be paid by the hour, at a rate of $23.

School board members Phil Ford, Ron Laux, Mike Shannon, Donna Geesaman, Jason Phillips and Vickie Reitz, absent Chris Snow, unanimously approved the agreement.

“It took us a while, but we got there,” said Laux, who served on the board’s negotiating team along with Ford and Geesaman. “It took a lot of work to get us there … but it went well.”

He noted Monday that the school corporation is continuing to look at the possibility of implementing referral bonuses for bus drivers.