Base pay increase for Colby support staff approved by board
The Colby School board approved the raising of starting wages for many hourly positions within the district, including those of aides, secretaries, and food service staff. In addition to this, they also approved the COVID-19 guidelines and the long term continuity of services plan.
The board examined and ultimately approved a motion presented by the personnel committee to increase the novice and base pay for non-exempt, or hourly, staff and a corresponding change be made to the employee handbook. Novice pay will now start at $15.00/hour with an increase in base pay to $15.25/hour after six months of employment and a performance evaluation for cooks, instructional aides, media aides, and secretaries who receive full benefits. This is an increase from the novice pay of $10.10/hour and base pay of $10.35/hour for cooks and instructional aides and the novice pay of $10.20/hour and base pay of $10.45/ hour for media aides and secretaries. Non-benefit positions, or those that work less than 30 hours per week, saw a change in pay from $14.00/hour for starting pay to $17.50/hour.
In addition to an increase in pay to any new potential employees, the move will also raise any employee in any of these positions currently making less than $15.00/hour if they have been with the district for less than six months or $15.25/hour if they have been employed longer up to the respective pays of $15.00/hour or $15.25/hour.
Many surrounding schools have similarly increased the wages for these positions over the last several years and the board agreed that it was a necessary move. The board has also recognized that staff wages in general need to be raised, both to properly pay current employees in the current market as well as to remain competitive in the hiring landscape. Raising the base starting salary for these hourly positions is the first step in this process, though future moves will also need to be made.
Given the increase of pay of these starting positions does not affect those who have been with the school district long enough to have earned raises bringing them above $15.25/hour, those individuals would be making similar amounts as newer hires. In order to accommodate for this, two additional motions were presented by the personnel committee and approved by the board.
One motion created a one-time staff bonus that follows the same format as the stipend issued to staff earlier this year in June. This stipend gave a bonus to staff based on their years of service to the school district, ranging from $1,000 for staff who have been employed for 0-5 years to $2,000 for those who have been employed for 21 or more years. This bonus will use the same amounts set by the previous stipend and will be given to all staff making more than the minimum of $15.25/hour.
An additional motion added that if a current employee’s hourly rate was increased by less than $1.00 due to the base pay increase, they would receive a prorated bonus based on how long they have been with the district and how much their hourly rate was raised due to the base pay increase. This bonus also utilizes the amounts from the June 2022 stipend and breaks them down based on the amount the employee’s hourly rate was raised.
“The concept here is that we still need to address teachers and the people that we didn’t give an hourly increase some time in the future,” superintendent Dr. Steven Kolden said of the bonus. “I don’t want to speak for [the personnel committee], but I believe that the idea was, not knowing what the 2023-2025 biannual budget would look like, it’s not fiscally responsible to commit $200,000 to $300,000 in ongoing expenses without knowing what your budget is. So I believe we would then look at those other groups once we have a better idea of what the budget would look like.”
Much like the prior bonus, the money for this bonus will be utilizing ESSER funds, which are part of the state and federal governments’ COVID-19 relief response.
The new rates are to go into effect September 25.
Guidelines
The board also approved an updated draft for the Colby School District’s COVID- 19 guidelines. The state required that these guidelines needed to be set and approved, along with the district’s updated continuity of services plan. While these guidelines are to be used for the foreseeable future, it is also noted that they will be under periodic review and can be revised.
The current guidelines state that masks are not required in all PreK-12 settings by students, staff, or others.
Those that test positive after taking PCR/Antigen COVID test will be required to isolate for a minimum of five days. These days will not count against their 10 “parent excused” absences nor will staff need to use sick leave. However, these test results need to be from a doctor or medical facility. Positives from a home test will not be accepted.
If a student or staff member is symptomatic, they should stay home. Illness will count towards the 10 allowable parent excused absences or sick leave, unless they have a physician’s statement or positive PCR/Antigen test. At that point, those days will not be counted.
Those returning after the five day quarantine are strongly encouraged to wear a mask during days six through ten of the illness, but are not required to do so.
The school will no longer be performing contact tracing within the classrooms. Only overall positive cases will be reported publicly on the webpage, separated by building. If it is requested, the district will provide information about specific classes with positive cases, though individuals who have tested positive will not be mentioned. This will allow parents to decide if asymptomatic students need to be quarantined.
