At last evening’s Board Meeting, the Board of Education formerly approved an unprecedented settlement agreement that will impact all contract and hourly Educational Support Professionals (non-licensed staff). The District is pleased to announce that these positions will receive a $4-an-hour increase in their compensation. This includes bus drivers, custodians, paraprofessionals, nutrition services workers, custodians, and more. We fully recognize that this employee group is critical in our ability to provide quality educational services for students and providing support to our licensed and administrative colleagues.
Going forward into this Spring’s settlements with various employee groups, the Board of Education and District Administration wanted to send a message of unparalleled commitment to our Educational Support Professionals (ESP). With the onset of the pandemic, many ESP and hourly positions have been difficult to fill given competing compensation realities from the private sector and labor shortages in the local economy. As such, we are pleased to announce this significant increase to help retain and attract quality employees to our schools. For example, food services staffing has had dozens of openings throughout the year. There are currently over 30 custodial and maintenance positions unfilled and over 50 aide positions unfilled as well.
The recently ratified settlement between the Granite Education Association (GEA) and the Granite Education Support Professional Association (GESPA) also include no increases in premium costs in our health plans for our benefited employees to help keep more of our employees compensation in their pockets.
The budget for the upcoming school year was adopted at this meeting and includes a proposal for a small tax increase to help pay for these increases. This will require the board to go through the process of truth in taxation with an additional public hearing in August. The proposed increase is anticipated to be $73 a year on an average home within the district. The Board and Administration take their fiscal responsibility very seriously with the full understanding of the potential impact on our taxpayers. The district is committed to providing the highest quality of educational opportunities and with over 90% of our operations budget going towards personnel, providing competitive compensation in these hard to fill positions will help us achieve better quality educational outcomes for our students and families.
