Raise for school brass more than 7 cents

A two-year package of $314,000 in raises and benefits is proposed for administrators and non-union employees.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 20, 2000

INVERNESS -- Superintendent Pete Kelly will propose a two-year, $314,000 pay raise and benefit package for administrators and other non-unionized school district employees to the School Board on Tuesday.

The raise recommendation comes just days after teachers received retroactive checks containing the increase their union negotiated, but before unions representing secretarial, professional and blue-collar workers have gotten into much pay raise discussion.

Under Kelly's proposal, school district administrators would receive retroactive raises of $700 for this year and a $1,000 increase for the 2000-01 school year. Non-union professional and technical workers, including program analysts, account specialists and the internal auditor, would see $800 raises this year and $1,000 raises next year.

Non-union secretarial positions, including executive secretaries, administrative secretaries, some principals' secretaries and business office managers, would get an increase of 30 cents per hour this year and 35 cents per hour next year under Kelly's proposal.

Benefits account for 20 percent of the cost of the package. They include state retirement and the district's contribution to health insurance premiums.

Kelly said his pay raise proposals make sense at this time.

"We're running out of time this year, and we want to finish up the other two (union contracts) soon," Kelly said. "Also, I want everyone to see what is planned for every group . . . so that nothing seems hidden."

He said the pay packages treat the various employee groups equitably.

"The administrators' raises are pretty much in line with what the teachers got," he said.

The teachers received raises ranging from $600 to $800 this year. The average raise next year for teachers is about $1,000.

Since the Citrus Support Personnel, which negotiates for the unionized secretarial and professional/technical workers, has not yet settled its contract, Kelly could not say how the offer for non-union workers in those areas compares to what the unionized staff will ultimately receive.

The first pay raise proposal presented to Citrus Support Personnel was 7 cents an hour, which the union negotiating team found laughable.

The Teamsters represent the blue collar workers, who have been trying to negotiate their first contract since early 1998.

Kelly said that he had worked out during teacher contract negotiations what percentage of the available money is expended by each group and he intends to stick with that formula. "We're trying to be as fair as we can with all of it," he said.

Also at Tuesday's special School Board meeting, Kelly will propose several changes in his administrative structure. Under Kelly's plan, the assistant superintendent would oversee principals, but the other county-level educational services would fall under a new position, executive director of education services. That would mean a promotion and $3,000 pay raise for Tom Curry, who holds a director's job that will be lost in the restructuring.

With the departure of Roberta Long as executive director of management services, Kelly is recommending that the job be eliminated and replaced by an executive director of business services who would assume many of the same responsibilities, plus finance. That would mean a $3,000 pay increase and promotion for current finance director Sara Perez. Her old job would then be eliminated.

Executive Director of Support Services Bill Humbaugh would add several areas of responsibility to his supervision which had previously been Long's responsibility.

Kelly estimates that even with the additional cost of $6,000 for the two promotions, the district will actually save $63,800 overall with the elimination of Long's position.

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