Carson City School Board approves administration pay increases, change in employment status policy
Submitted by Jaedyn Young on Wed, 08/09/2023 - 1:40pm
The Carson City School District and the School Board of Trustees approved salary increases for administration in the school district at the Aug. 8 school board meeting.
After the teachers and staff recieved a salary increase on July 25, these negotiations did not extend towards staff not covered by the union and not apart of their collective bargaining groups.
This salary increase was discussed for associate superintendents, directors, managers and other employees for the fiscal impact of $416,181. The increases will be broken into an 11 percent increase for 2024, and a 2 percent increase for 2025.
Carson City School District Superintendent Andrew Feuling presented the salary increase to the board in the last agenda item for action.
During the discussion, Trustee Molly Walt had a concern about the steps being “inconsistent” with the percentages of the increases from the certified to the administrators to the classified. Walt said she just wants “equality” among all the salary increases between the last increase and this proposed increase.
President of the school board, Laurel Crossman said “The collective bargaining agreements were thoroughly discussed … and agreed to by the groups. The issue that is before us today is not that, that is settled and that is agreed. This is a recommendation from the superintendent to provide an equitable salary increase to those staff members who are not represented by collective bargaining agreements.”
Walt suggests a 9% increase instead of an 11% increase, so it is a bit more equitable for this group. However, Crossman disagrees because she believes since they are not doing a flat rate, 11% is more equitable since she said they have more responsibility and work year-round.
"I think one of the issues I have, none of these salaries are out of line to me. In fact, from the lowest paid folks to the highest paid folks in the district, they're all under paid," Trustee Joe Cacioppo. Cacioppo agrees the pay increases are generally consistent, but not always and going forward he said there should be consistency.
The agenda item for salary increases for administration was approved with the vote being 5-2.
“Administrators have a tough job,” Trustee Mike Walker said. “I think if you want good people running your district, you have to pay them. Our job as a school board is to support all employees, starting from our lunch aides to our superintendent.”
Other agenda items approved:
The board of trustees also approved Dan Sadler's proposed changes to employment status policy 405. The suggested change was shortening the probationary period from 12 months to 6 months as well as a change in the requirement for an evaluation report from 6 months to 3 months.
Sadler explained this would allow the probation period to get into evaluation process sooner to provide feedback to employees faster. The main reason for this change is because currently probationary positions are not allowed to promote on the salary schedule until their complete the probation. The potential cons could be that people have a shorter chance to get to know employees and a shorter chance of improvement for positions.
“I can see the concern … but at the same time I don’t want to get stuck with people who are not best at working with kids," Trustee Walker said.
Sadler also added that this approval would be implemented with a new classified employee evaluation tool, which is now digital and will speed up the evaluation feedback to be completed in the actual window of time.
“The reason I kind of flipped from one side to the other [12 months to 6 months] is the new evaluation platform,” Trustee Walt said. “Knowing that it’s digital and knowing that there’s going to be alerts … we know that it’s getting done and in a timely manner.”
The policy change was approved with the vote being 6-1.
The board then held an informational update regarding current staffing for the district. Sadler explained the main points that there were 52% fewer vacancies from certified employees from August 2022 to August 2023 and 37% fewer vacancies from classified employees.
After the informational update, the trustees also approved and agreed on their nominations of recognition for the Nevada Association of School Boards 2023 annual conference.
Here are the nominations they chose:
- School Administrator of the Year: Mr. Bob Chambers, previous Principal, Carson High School and Mrs. Cheryl Richetta, Principal, Bordewich Bray Elementary School
- School District Employee Making a Difference: Ms. Merri Pray, Professional Learning Coordinator/Family Engagement Coordinator and Ms. Leticia Servin
- District Level Administrator Impacting Student Achievement: Mr. Dan Sadler, Associate Superintendent and Mrs. Tasha Fuson
- Director of the Year: Trustee Richard Varner
- Veteran School Board Member: Trustee Mike Walker
- New School Board Member of the Year: Trustee Molly Walt
- Individual School Board Member of the Year: President of Carson City School Board Laurel Crossman
- Local Governance Team of the Year: Carson City School Board
- Friend of K-12 Public Education: Carson City Schools Foundation
- Outstanding Media Award: Carson High School Digital Media Program
- Innovative Educator of the Year: Anada Campbell, School Library Media Specialist, Carson City School District
- Board Secretary or Other Support Staff: Dan Davis
- Superintendent of the Year – Andrew Feuling, Carson City School District Superintendent
To watch the full Carson City School Board meeting on Aug. 8, click here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B-V6GvoG9U.
