Local News

School workers will get boost

Marc Valero | Highlands Today
Published: September 27, 2012

SEBRING - All the school district's nearly 1,500 employees will be receiving a pay increase and/or one-time bonus with the School Board of Highlands County's approval Tuesday of three employee contracts.

The bonuses are scheduled to be paid on the Oct. 15 payroll.

The teachers voted Monday to approve a contract agreement with the district.

Negotiations between the district and the school support employees union concluded Friday with a tentative agreement.

In an unprecedented move, the school board approved the support union contract prior to the union's vote on it.

The union requested the school board vote on Tuesday prior to the union's vote on Sunday so that the contract could be approved by both parties earlier to expedite the bonuses, said Deputy Superintendent Rodney Hollinger. The alternative would have been a vote by the union and then a vote by the school board at its next meeting on Oct. 9.

The third contract that the school board approved covers the district's non-bargaining employees, which includes confidential secretarial and clerical positions, mid-managers and administrators.

The teacher's agreement will cost the district an extra $1.2 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year, $800,000 in reoccurring costs and $400,000 in non-reoccurring (one-time bonus) costs.

The one-time bonus for school support employees will cost the district about $200,000.

The agreement with administrators will cost $34,000 and with non-bargaining, non-instructional and mid-managers will cost $18,000 for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Employees received no pay increase and no bonuses last year.

Following is a summary of the employee pay increases and bonuses approved by the school board:

Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations Mike Averyt said the support union bonuses vary among the employees who have different work schedules depending on their position.

Some bus drivers work four-and-one-half hours per day and 185 days a year, while some support employees work five or six hours a day and 206, 216 or 260 days a year.

The low end of the one-time bonus would be $291 (for the aforementioned bus driver) while on the high end a 12-month employee working 260 eight-hour days would receive a one-time bonus of $728, Averyt said.