Teachers, community upset after board passes 1% pay raise

Mary Beth Sallee

Managing Editor

Hart Co. News Herald

 

The Hart County School District has long used the term “One Hart” to show unity across the county. But during last month’s Board of Education meeting, certified staff were given a mere 1% raise, leaving many teachers questioning if the district’s slogan should actually be “One % Hart”.

Carrie Murray is one of those teachers.

Like others working in education, Murray was hopeful when news broke earlier this year that the Kentucky legislature had passed a new two-year state budget that would increase funding for K-12 schools.

According to news reports, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers stated that the new budget would increase the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding formula by over 9% during the next two-year budget cycle. SEEK is the state’s main funding formula for public K-12 schools.

With the additional funding, Governor Andy Beshear had proposed an 11% pay raise for teachers and all other public school employees. However, through policy decision, it would be left up to local school districts on whether or not they would use any of the increased state funding to award raises to teachers.

During the Hart County School Board meeting on April 18, the Board passed 4-1 to allocate a 1% raise to Certified Staff (teachers), a 2% raise to Athletics, and a 4% raise to Classified Staff (instructional assistants, custodians, bus drivers, etc.).

The Board’s passing of a 1% raise for teachers was disheartening for Murray and many others.

“Like everybody in the state of Kentucky, we (teachers) got excited when we saw the 11% on the news for the past six months,” Murray explained. “…Now, did we expect 11%? We knew the last time this happened, we didn’t get the full amount. We knew to have some disappointment, you know, but when the 1% passed in April, it was pretty shocking…I just expected better out of our district. When that passed that night, everybody came to school the next day, and everybody was just in shock with 1%.”

Murray, along with teacher LaRissa Trousdale and several others, began doing a substantial amount of research, including comparing the salary schedule of Hart County teachers to those in adjacent or nearby counties.

“We’re not going into this blindly,” Murray said. “We’re learning a lot, and what we’re learning is kind of disturbing.”

Other nearby school districts saw a 3%-10% raise for their teachers. Green County even implemented a 12% raise for Classified Staff.

The question at hand is: does the Hart County School District have the adequate funding to support a larger raise for educators? After all – if adjacent school districts with similar demographics and funding can award their teachers with a substantial pay raise, why can’t Hart County?

According to Brian Mingus with the Kentucky Education Association (KEA), it can.

Mingus stated that any time there is a demand for salary increases, it’s often said the funds aren’t there. But that’s not always the case.

“Certainly what has to be looked at is the current SEEK funding in this biennium (budget cycle for two years) that starts what, in July I guess,” Mingus said. “There are funds there. There are funds from the second biennium that were allocated because the SEEK funding, it’s recurring funds, so the increases that were made the last biennium, those funds are still there. They’re added to by the funds that are added this biennium. And then the biennium before that, at least in base seek funding, there was an extra hundred dollars per child and then another a hundred on top of that in the second biennium. So when we start talking about the numbers, given that there hasn’t been a substantial increase given to Hart County employees for quite some time, it’s not just the current SEEK funding we’re looking at. It’s all that previous SEEK funding.”

Mingus said there is also a lot of money that was received during the COVID pandemic, including three rounds of American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds that put millions and millions of dollars into each school district in the state of Kentucky.

“And what we normally see with that, there is a what’s called a Fund One amount that districts are required to retain it. It’s their contingency funds,” Mingus explained. “I believe they’re required to have 2% of their annual operating costs of that. State recommends about 5%. There are districts now that because of the ARP ESSER funds, the COVID funds, that have Fund One amounts that go up to 40, 60, 65% of their annual operating budget. So there are a lot of districts that are able to pull from that.”

“A lot of districts, when the COVID funds came in, they would take those funds and they would pay their normal operating expenses out of that. That was legal. There’s nothing shady. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Mingus continued. “But what that allowed them to do was to retain a large General Fund amount, and that’s why we see those huge Fund One balances. Now, I don’t believe Hart County has as large of a contingency fund as a lot of the districts do, but again, the money was there. Now where it is now, I don’t know. I haven’t had an opportunity to review their financial statements, but there should be quite a bit of money in there.”

Mingus has not reviewed the books for the Hart County School District, but did compare Hart County to Breckinridge County in regards to SEEK funding and raises.

“Two years ago, Breckinridge County came in – this would’ve been the beginning of the last biennium – they came up with essentially an overall 8% salary increase the first year, a 2% the second year, and then starting this year, another 2%. So, over three years, they did 12%,” Mingus said. “If you look back at SEEK funding, the SEEK numbers for Hart County look almost identical to Breckinridge. Breckenridge demographics are very, very similar. You have the same number of schools in each, so it’s a really good match in comparisons. And the money was there, and they still have a huge Fund One balance. I think they’re running about 35% in their Fund One. So money has been granted to these districts. Now, I don’t know what every district has done with it, but there is money there. And if there’s not money there, then it’s interesting to know where has that gone?”

Out of respect for one another within the education system, Murray and Trousdale’s concerns aren’t only for teachers’ pay. They are also concerned with the salary of their classified colleagues, including instructional assistants, custodians, bus drivers, cooks, just to name a few.

“I will tell you, I had my eyes closed (until) two weeks ago,” Murray said. “I was a complacent worker and educator. I just went, and I did my job. I love my coworkers. I love my kids. Then I look around at my classified colleagues, and they’re getting $13,000 a year. I’m looking at these starting teachers making way less than McDonald’s workers. Praise McDonald’s for paying their employees.”

On Monday of this week, the Hart County School Board held a Working Session to discuss budget and salaries. During this meeting, Murray and others planned to present to the Board an amendment proposal for an additional salary increase for both certified staff and classified staff.

“It (the amendment proposal) is basically what we agreed upon as a group of teachers that got together of what…we’re going to propose when we get to the board meeting,” Murray said.

The amendment proposal Murry and Trousdale spoke of included asking for Classified Staff to receive a $2 raise on the hour instead of a percentage raise. For those that make less than $18 an hour, they would like to see them receive the $2/hour increase plus the 4% raise.

For Certified Staff, they are proposing that 9% be added to the current 1% raise, for a total of 10%.

According to the amendment proposal, awarding staff with such raises would not only attract highly qualified teachers to come to Hart County, but also retain teachers to stay in the school district. It would also acknowledge the dedication and hard work of teachers currently educating Hart County students.

Murray disclosed that she has met with Superintendent Nathan Smith and Finance Officer Chris Russell.

“When I left there that day, he (Smith) had Chris Russell go over a basic budget with me, which didn’t mean much to me at the time, other than being a little overwhelmed by all the numbers and the markings,” Murray continued. “And I understand Chris Russell has a big job, but it still doesn’t match the SEEK funding coming in and the revenue they’ve got coming in and still assigning that 1% to us.”

The Hart County School Board will convene again on Thursday, May 16 at 6 p.m. at the High School for its regularly scheduled meeting. It is both Murray’s and Trousdale’s hope that the Board will vote to amend and increase the salary raises out of respect for those in the school district who make a difference in the lives of local children.

Editor’s Note: The Hart County News-Herald has filed Open Records Requests with the Hart County School District, including files regarding funding allocations, pay raise records, and several other documents.