- March 28, 2024
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The School Board held a public hearing July 26 to adopt a tentative millage rate of 8.031. In a workshop, salary increases for administrative and professional employees were discussed.
At a public hearing July 26, a tentative millage rate of 8.031 was unanimously adopted by the Flagler County School Board. Last fiscal year, the tax rate was 8.013, or about $8.01 per every $1,000 of taxable property value.
After the hearing, a workshop was called by Superintendent Janet Valentine to revisit the pay increase issue for administrative and professional employees.
Neither personnel group received raises in June, when the School Board finalized a deal with the teachers union and approved, by contract law, 2% pay step increases for instructional staff. Later, it was suggested that administrative (principals, coordinators, etc.) and professional (food service and maintenance management, etc.) staff be split into two entities and their raises reexamined.
“I’m recommending a 2% increase to professional staff,” Valentine told the board.
There are 29 professional employees on payroll, making anywhere from $26,000 to $55,000. Benefits not included, combined raises would cost a total of $22,610.
She also recommended raises for administrative staff with salaries ranging from $47,000 to $103,700. Raises for this group would account for .1% of the total budget, she said.
Neither group has seen a pay bump in three years.
“There starts to be a real discrepancy,” Valentine said. “I almost feel like, at this point, (administrators) are almost being penalized for taking those leadership roles.”
Other members of the board didn’t see it that way.
John Fischer compared the salaries of administrators to those of similar districts in Florida, showing Flagler about $10,000 higher. “I believe (they) deserve a raise,” he said. “(But) if the board votes ... I will vote against it.”
Colleen Conklin agreed: “(The salaries) are competitive.” She noted that raises for administration would cancel out the savings from closing district offices the week of July Fourth.
“It’s not a disrespectful position I’m taking,” she said. “It’s a realistic one.”
She supported increases for professional staff, however, explaining that only $5,000 — not $62,000, like administrative — would have to be taken from the general fund to afford it. So did Andy Dance.
In closing, Chairwoman Sue Dickinson, the board’s strongest raise advocate, compared a raise rejection to an unfunded mandate — the very thing Conklin has been rallying against for months, in regard to the state’s treatment of public education.
“We keep asking (staff) to, “Do more, do more, do more.” And we give less,” she said. “We’re doing the same thing to our administrators that our state is doing to us.”
The board decided years ago to increase salaries in order to recruit and retain quality employees, she added, and if raises aren’t approved now, catch-up will have to be played later, which will be a lot more expensive.
“I don’t want to see us going backward,” she said. “And that’s what we’re doing if we don’t support this raise.”