School Board Approves New Pay Scale

The USD 214 School Board met on Monday, August 8, 2022 with all members in attendance.

The agenda and the consent agenda was moved and approved by all seven members.

For non-action public forum, Tammy Barb, head of the Grant County Teachers Association presented the board with the welcome gift baskets for the new teachers. Barb shared that over 68 businesses participated in welcoming the new teachers. The board thanked the teachers association for their hard work in welcoming the new teachers.

There was no correspondence.

Reports, Kevin Warner, Director of Student Learning shared that the State LCP Title 1 meeting was good. Warner shared that Southwest Plains Regional Service Center has started a teacher boot camp for new teachers. The boot camp is a three day training to get information. Six of the new teachers went to the teacher boot camp the beginning of August. Warner also shared that the new teachers started on Thursday and have had three days of professional development and on boarding. Warner shared that this is a very busy time of the year for all the teaching staff.

Superintendent Corey Burton shared that the field house is still on track to be opened the first football game in September. Burton shared that the HVAC units are in and expected to be up and running by the end of the week. Burton thanked all the principals and staff for their hard work. Burton and the high school staff met with Ron Vagher, Chief of Police, and Tony Cavasos, the School Resource Officer. They talked about school safety and that throughout the school year, there will be tours around the school grounds to interact with the students.

For New Business, Burton shared that the state board has implemented a new law for the schools. The Needs assessment report has to be shared publicly each year on the school website to reflect those needs in the budget.

Ruby Romero the head nurse shared the 2022-2023 COVID plan for the school district. The school will offer testing for students and faculty. If students test positive, they will be required to stay home for five days and then required to wear a mask at school for five days. This school year, household contacts of a positive student may come to school as long as they test negative. If students refuse to wear a mask at school, they will be required to stay at home for the full 10 days unless they re-test and it is negative.

The board moved to accept and approved the COVID plan for the 2022-2023 school year.

In action items, Burton shared that he would like to implement a Chromebook policy for the 2022-2023 school year. Students’ parents must sign the policy, agreeing to pay for the damages or replacement costs of the chromebook in the event of damages. The motion was moved and passed to approve the Chromebook policy.

For the pay scale, the board discussed some of the current wages for Paras and Custodians. Burton shared that the average pay was $11.24 an hour and ranged as low as $9.75 an hour last year for Paras. Employees that have been with the school for over 10 years are making less than $11.00 an hour. When interviewing candidates for Para positions, they have inquired about the starting pay. In order to be competitive with the wages in Ulysses, the school would need to have a starting wage of around $12.00 an hour. However, this is not right for those employees that have been with the district over 10 years. Burton shared that he visited with local school districts to see how they were handling wage issues. Burton adopted a couple of pay scales and presented these to the board. These pay scales start Paras out at $12.00 an hour for the first year and then slowly increase each year. The only downfall, is that the bottom line will need to be reevaluated periodically to ensure that the wages are fair for each Para. The average pay increase for Paras would increase over $2.00 an hour and would put the average over $13.00 an hour. This would cost the school around $54,000.00 a year for the pay increases.

Burton shared that the average pay for custodians was $10.99 an hour with the range as low as $9.75 an hour. Burton recommended that we move the custodians to a starting wage of $11.00 an hour. This would make an average increase of over $1 an hour. Custodians can earn overtime, but it is limited. By making these pay increases for the custodians, it would cost the district an additional $43,000.000 a year. The motion to adopt the new pay scale was moved and passed by all seven board members.

The board accepted a donation from Pioneer for STEM Class for the middle school in the amount of $890.98. The board also accepted a donation from the Grant County Community Foundation in the amount of $500.00. The board approved the two donations for USD 214.

After an executive session, the Board accepted the resignations of Jennifer Rodriquez – KMS Title One Para; Esperanza Majalca – KMS ELL Para; Martina Ortiz – KMS ELL Para; Adam Salas – UHS Para; Andrea Simmons – Hickok LTS; Magen Delgado – Hickok Para; Reile Meile – KMS Assistant Volleyball; Mayra Meraz – Sullivan ESL Para; Gina Ballestevos – Sullivan ESL Para; and Bri Rivas – Sullivan ESL Para.

The board accepted the contracts of Jessica Vasquez – KMS ELL Para; Nathan Buchholz – UHS Assistant Football/Assistant Softball; Sirus Rosales- UHS Assistant Football; Jon Becker – UHS Assistant Football; Jonathan Rivas – UHS Assistant Football; Izik Pantoja – UHS Assistant Boys Basketball; Amanda Langley - UHS Assistant Girls Basketball; Ayston Perez – UHS Assistant Wrestling; Cade Albert – UHS Assistant HS Track; Kenneth Holmes – KMS Assistant Football; Gabby Sanchez – KMS Assistant Volleyball; and Mia Degollado – KMS ELL Para.

No other action was taken.

The next board meeting will take place September 12, 2022 at Joyce school at 7:00PM.