During last Thursday night’s monthly meeting of the DeKalb County School Board, a new budget was approved for recommendation with the proposed raises for teachers and support staff. The budget now has to make its way past the County Budget Committee, and the full county commission, before being fully approved.
Director of Schools Patrick Cripps will present the new school spending plan to the budget committee on Tuesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. Under the plan, a $2,000 increase would go to employees with up to nine years of service; $5,000 for those with 10-19 years; and $6,000 to staff with 20 or more years.
In previous years, the school board absorbed raises from the school budget’s near $10 million balance reserves. This year, Cripps and the board is asking the county to add extra money to help fund the raises. But the school board may be facing an uphill battle, with the county already feeling the crunch from a required jail upgrade.
“We are asking the county for help,” said Director Cripps. “I think we have done our due diligence for the nine years I have been here as director. We haven’t asked for an extra penny (more local property tax money) but now we need help,” he said.
Currently, a total of 0.5298 cents of the county’s $2.00 property tax rate per $100 of assessed value goes to help fund the DeKalb County School District. That equates to around $62,000 per one cent of the tax levy.
DeKalb Schools employ 234 teachers, and other professional personnel, as well as 177 support staff. All of them would be eligible to earn more money under the board’s proposal.
Entry level pay for teachers locally is now just over $50,000 per year, but many teachers who have worked in the system for years are not earning much more than that.
“One of the things we have noticed is that there isn’t a great separation from the pay of an individual who starts teaching to those with 20 plus years. Partly because of this we are starting to lose teachers with more experience because they are trying to get their high five,” said Director Cripps. “We (DeKalb County School District) are number 7 in the state with starting out salaries because we are at $50,000, but on the back end of the scale we are lagging in the state.”
“If you look at our total budget last year it was $30,440,922. With this (pay raise plan) the budget would be $33, 458, 197 which is about a $3.1 million increase in the budget. We’re getting a little over $28 million from the state and the county,” explained Director Cripps.
“The majority of the budget increases are for raises,” explained Cripps. “We have added a PE teacher at the West School because their numbers have grown. They are growing probably faster than any other school. We are adding a kindergarten teacher and taking on new salaries, including one out of ESSER and two for special education because of the needs of students coming in especially in the elementary, K-5 grade level. I think there are 20 plus kids in CDC at Smithville Elementary and that’s Pre-K to 2. Those numbers are getting to be exceedingly high. We are also looking at putting a CDC or SED classroom at the West School because we are transporting several students from that building to the Middle School, Northside, or Smithville Elementary,” said Director Cripps.
