Pay raises raise voting dilemma

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

— After exploring the issue of when board members with spouses employed by the district must abstain, school board members, at the May21 meeting, voted to give classified staff members and bus drivers in Decatur a raise.

The pay increase will raise bus drivers wages by 3 percent and classifiedstaff members by $0.40 an hour. Classified staff members include custodians, maintenanceand transportation workers, teacher aides, nurses, clerical staff and food service workers.

While the four school board members agreed the staff deserved a raise, it took a great deal of discussion, research and revision of the originalproposal before the motion to raise classified staff pay could be passed.

Who can vote?

Before the proposal was heard, board members had to answer the question of whether or not they would even be eligible to vote.

Board member Kevin Smith raised concerns that two of thefour board members - Darleen Holly and Aaron Owens - have spouses who are employed as classified staff at Decatur schools. Their spouses are alsomembers of the personnel pol-icy committee proposing the raise.

Smith said that he abstained from voting last month on teacher raises because his wife is employed as a teacher, and pointed out that if the other two board members abstained from voting on the classified raises there would not be a quorum left to vote.

The board’s fifth position was left open when Justin Thompson resigned in March. Thompson and board president Ike Owens were the only board members whose spouses were not employed by the school.

Smith said that it was his understanding that it is legal for school board members to have a household member employed by the school, but that a board member could not vote on any issue that would bring money into his or her household.

Other board members pointed out that Smith’s grandmother is also employed as a classified staff member, so it could potentially make it impossible for him to vote on classified staff matters as well. Discussions broke out throughout the room, with a number of speculations on what the law specifies.

Decatur superintendent Larry Ben pointed out that, according to law, the school board must act within thirty days after a personnel policy committee proposal is presented, by either accepting, rejecting or referring the proposal back with a counter proposal.

Ben and Smith agreed that it was highly unlikely that another school board member would be found in the next thirty days so the board could form a quorum because both the school board members and school administration have been searching for a willing candidate for some timewithout any success.

The board agreed to suspend the meeting so that Ben and Smith could go over to Ben’s office and research the law.

Consulting the law

Once the meeting was back in session, Ben told the board members thelaw states that board members cannot vote on any decision that would give a family member more than $2,500.

If the board takes an action that would give a board member’s family member more than $2,500, it must be approved by the Arkansas Commissioner of Education, according to the Arkansas Department of Education Rules and Regulations Governing Ethical Guidelines and Prohibitions for Educational Administrators, Employees, Board Members and Other Parties.

The proposed raise would amount to $832 a year for an employee who worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. Many of the classified staff members do not work full time or year round, so their raise would be proportionately less.

Presentation of the proposal

Northside Elementary School secretary Sue Verser presented the classified staff personnel policy committee’s original proposal to the board. The letter from the committee requested a 3 percent cost-of-living raise for all classified employees. It explained that it has been five years since classified staff have received a cost-of-living raise and pointed out that teachers were given a $500 step raise right before the school went intofiscal distress in 2008, after which time no more raises were given because of financial concerns.

School board president Ike Owens said he felt a 3 percent raise would not be fair because it would give higher wage earners a larger raise than low wage earners. He pointed out that the cost of living has gone up equally for everyone.

According to the school district’s salary schedule, classified staff wages range from $7.94 an hour for a first-year custodian to $18.75 an hour for a first-year nurse. Classified staff members get a raise for each year of service they provide the school, up to 17 years,according to the schedule.

A counter proposal

Ike Owens proposed instead that classified staff get a $0.40 an hour raise to their base pay so that it would also affectnew hires. Owens said the raises would cost the district approximately $17,000 a year either way it was done, but the money would be distributed more fairly if the hourly wage was increased by $0.40.

Concerns were raised that bus drivers are not paid by the hour but by the route, and Ben suggested bus drivers get a 3 percent raise to simplify things.

Once the board agreed on the counter proposal, they faced another problem. According to policy, the board’s proposal must go back before the personnel policy committee for 10 days before the board can vote to finalize it.

Classified staff personnel policy committee member Patsy Wilkins said that all but one of the personal policy committee members were present and asked if the process could be sped up if they gave their approval at the meeting.

After some discussion between Ben and the board members about whether it would be acceptable to move forward without waiting ten days, a motion to approve the proposed raises was made.

School board members voted to deny an across-the-board $500 a year raise for teachers last month. Ike Owens explained they chose to deny the teacher raise and accept the classified staff raise because it was a way to catch classified staff back up to the raise teachers received in 2008, before the school was declared to be in fiscal distress.

Board member Darleen Holly also explained that teachers will receive a bonus of $1,000 to $4,000 provided as financial aid from the state for schools with less than 1,000 students and more than 80 percent of students on free and reduced lunches.

In addition to passing the raise for classified staff members, the following policies were passed without discussion:

◊Student policy section 4;

◊Classified employee policy section 8;

◊Classified employee policy sections 1, 5 and 8; and

◊Classified employee contracts were renewed.

News, Pages 1 on 05/30/2012