Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NEWS RELEASE

At the April Lincoln County Board of Education meeting, the board approved a raise for employees for the 2023-24 school year. This will be the third consecutive year of raises for both certified and classified staff.

“Since I joined the school district in 2020, it has been a personal goal of mine to elevate our staff’s salaries and pay rates to be on par with neighboring school districts” said Lee Ann Smith, Lincoln County Schools finance director. “We are working aggressively to close the gap that currently exists. Lincoln County Schools wants to attract and retain the best of the best and to do that we have to pay a competitive wage.”

Instead of giving a percentage increase across all positions, the board took a more customized approach to applying next year’s raise amounts. Jeannie Cooper, director of human resources, compiled a salary/rate comparison between Lincoln County and schools in our area. The board’s goal was to bring all positions on the salary schedule to within 98% of the area average.

All certified staff will receive a minimum of a 2% increase. Some certified staff areas will receive a 3% increase because these areas showed a more significant underpayment compared to their peers in neighboring districts.

Classified staff will receive a minimum increase of $1 per hour. Some classified staff areas will see more sizable increases due to a larger disparity when compared to the average pay for those positions in our area.

“Some of our positions have been more underpaid than others through the years,” said Smith. “That is why Mrs. Cooper & I looked at one job at a time to see what we needed to adjust and that’s why the raises will look different from one position to the next. We believed a blanket raise was not the right choice for us at this time.”