Medford board sets teacher pay raises for next year at CPI rate
Medford teachers and other school staff will see increases in their wages next fall as the result of a vote Monday night to set the wages and make changes to language in the employee handbook.
During the school board finance committee meeting before the regular board meeting, finance director Audra Brooks presented the proposal from administration.
For teaching staff, the district recommended going with a 2.95% increase to the base wages, working this out over the wage scale used by the teaching staff, the teachers will get their scheduled longevity-based step increases while also getting an additional $550 in each cell. Brooks noted the percent increase matched the consumer price index (CPI) amount.
For the support staff which include teachers aids, custodial, district-employed bus drivers and secretaries, the recommendation from administration after meeting with representatives was a 5.6% overall increase. This works out to about a 20 cent per hour increase for custodians, drivers and secretaries. Brooks also recommended a $1 per hour increase for teacher assistants.
The additional increase for teachers assistants, which are 9-month positions, is in recognition that those employees pay a higher percentage of their health insurance premiums than other employees. The teachers assistants had made the request for the district to pick up a larger percentage of the employee health insurance. Instead, the thought was to increase the amount they are paid.
According to Brooks, the change will move the starting wage for teaching assistants from $14.75 to $15.75 per hour. She also noted that under the pay scale, teachers aids that were making $14.75 per hour this year will make $16.05 per hour next school year.
“It is still below the starting wage at Kwik Trip,” said board member John Zuleger during the finance committee meeting, comparing what teachers assistants are paid versus other workers in the community.
District administrator Laura Lundy noted there were other things like being part of the state retirement system that make comparing compensation more complicated than looking just at wages.
Board president Dave Fleegel suggested the district could, instead of increases, give the additional money to teachers as a bonus this year. He explained this would not change the base rate for future years. Other committee members opposed this idea and it was not included as part of the recommendation that went to the full board.
In addition to the wage changes, there were also some language changes proposed.
The biggest change on both the teachers and support staff sides, was a change in the sick leave policy to include the ability to use sick leave to take a dependent child, spouse, parent or other close relative to a doctor’s appointment.
Under current language, sick leave for doctors appointments is only for the district employee with the others requiring the employees to take personal time off. The change will include immediate relatives which is everyone that is on the first grouping in the funeral leave policy.
Lundy noted that some employees who are very honest will take the personal day now, however others simply put in that they have an appointment. The district generally does not require a doctors note for sick leave time.
Brooks supported the change, noting that the current language puts administration in an “uncomfortable position” of asking what appointments are for to see if it fits in the policy.
Both Fleegel and finance committee chair Brian Hallgren were opposed to requiring doctor’s notes. “I don’t like slips for adults, I think it is petty,” Hallgren said.
Board member Steve Deml agreed, noted that requiring doctors notes would be creating a situation pushing people to go to the doctor when they don’t necessarily have to.
The other change in the language of this portion of the handbook would change it from “funeral” leave to “bereavement” leave and would remove allowing long term relationships to requiring them to be at least be a legal domestic partner for funeral or sick leave to apply.
Other handbook changes for support staff include a request from 11-12 month school secretaries to be able to carry over up to four vacation days per year and be paid out if there was a fifth day at $75 per day.
The only staff handbook change request that was rejected was for the district to cover a higher percentage of health insurance cost for 9-month employees.
On the professional staff, in addition to the sick leave change, administration supported changes to relax rules restricting days when people can use personal days and to give staff members who have filed to retire at the end of the school year the ability to take personal days in place of attending professional development.
One change that drew discussion at both the committee meeting and at the school board meeting was to increase the amount teachers are paid when they are required to give up their prep period in order to have to cover for another teacher. This is rarely used at the elementary level and sporadically used as middle school, but it common at the high school level to reduce having outside substitutes needed. The change will increase the amount from $20 to $25.
“There are a lot of places the nickel and dime them such as with insurance,” Zuleger said during the committee meeting, supporting increasing the compensation for losing a prep period.
At the school board meeting later that night, board member Don Everhard questioned paying teachers anything extra for being asked to give up their prep period to help out where needed. He compared it to an employer paying someone a set amount each day to be at work and then knowing the employee had downtime, having the employee work on the loading dock or elsewhere when they were needed. He said that employee would not expect to be paid more.
Lundy explained that the intent of the prep periods is for teachers to prepare for upcoming classes either that day or for the next day. She said giving up the prep period requires the teachers to do that work after school hours.
Fleegel said that while he did not disagree with Everhard, he said he imagined many of the districts teachers are putting in two hours of prep rather than just one already. “This is money well spent,” Fleegel said.
The recommended changes were approved by the committee members and by the full board.
In other action, members:
• Received an update that three additional vendors as well as A’viands had completed site tours of the school buildings as they continue the process to bid out the the food service contract.
• Gave their blessing to the district offering a short-term disability benefit that would be entirely paid by the participating employees. This would serve to bridge the amount of sick leave an employee accrued until they can qualify for long term disability.
• Approved changes to increase the amount paid to teachers for curriculum development and summer school pay to $25 per hour. It was noted the grant that increased the pay for summer school teachers last year is no longer there. Brooks said she surveyed area districts in the region and said the $25 per hour for summer school was about average.
• Discussed but left unchanged a employee assistance program that helps with mental health of employees, their spouse and dependents. The services do no count against the district’s health insurance usage. Last year, 10 people used the program.
Help for the Homeless Hygiene Drive this year. Between them and the Medford County Market 397 items, valued at $1,313, were collected and divided between Steppings Stones, (Taylor County’s domestic abuse & sexual assault advocacy agency) and The Taylor House (Taylor County’s homeless shelter). Pictured are Yolanda Montes, Prevail Bank -Medford Branch Manager presenting the items to Courtney Scholl, Stepping Stones Executive Director; Colleen Welker, Taylor House Director; and Jaime Johnson, Stepping Stones Victim Advocate. Other Prevail Bank branches that participated included Eau Claire, Marshfield, Wausau, and Wisconsin Rapids. Prevail Bank sincerely thanks those who donated to the cause. Prevail prides itself in making a difference in the communities it serves.
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