School Board Discusses WCS Support Staff Raises, Stipends
School Board Discusses WCS Support Staff Raises, Stipends
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
School Board Discusses WCS Support Staff Raises, StipendsSupport staff raises and stipends were briefly discussed and approved by the Warsaw School Board Monday night at its public work session and regular monthly meeting.
The two meetings were combined into one night for December.
At the work session, Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said comparisons were made with other school corporations on support staff wages, as well as the private sector. “We know we can’t match the public sector in the support staff areas, but we also know that there are sometimes schedules that go along with that, that school systems can provide,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re compensating people correctly as we can, so we have some recommendations here tonight, along with a possible stipend to be enacted at our regular board meeting.”
At the second meeting, he then announced the support staff raises, which will take place Jan. 1.
Positions impacted include instructional assistants, maintenance staff, administrative assistants, food service personnel, transportation staff, nurses and “multiple other support areas,” Hoffert said.
“These positions are highly critical to the success of the academic advancement of our students,” he said.
WCS also will provide each “full-time continuing hire, prior to Jan. 1, 2018, support staff employee a $200 one-time stipend. This stipend will be pro-rated for part-time employees and support staff employees hired between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2018. They will receive a $100 one-time stipend.”
He said the December stipend may not continue in 2019, though no decision has been finalized.
The board unanimously approved the raises and stipends.
Director Food Services Marci Franks discussed the food service stipend program during the board’s work session.
She said the stipend program began in 2012.
“We were having a wide turnover. It was getting near the 50 percent mark of staff turnover,” Franks said.
They came up with a plan that runs on a three-year cycle, which has reduced turnover “considerably,” she said.
WCS went from 46 percent turnover in 2012-13 to 8 percent turnover in this school year, she said.
She said hourly staff and anyone who works less than 40 a week receives a $750 stipend. “So for a person that’s starting at $8.30 to be a cook in the kitchen, that basically gives them an extra $1.04 per hour,” she said.
Franks said they also like to pay a little extra to the managers because that encourages people to want to step up and learn more about being a manager.
“We’re down seven positions right now. We’ve been down eight all year, we just filled one,” she said.
Seventy-eight percent of the Food Services employees now have two years of experience as opposed to constant turnover. “So we’re keeping some people,” she said.
