This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

School Board Passes Pay Raise for Classified Employees

After a heated debate, the Mehlville school board voted 5-2 to pass a 1-percent pay raise for classified employees.

Members of the Mehlville school board passed a 1-percent pay raise for classified staff within the district. The decision was made late Thursday night.

The issue was carried over from the last board meeting on Aug. 1 when the measure was postponed. But it passed Thursday night 5-2 with Rich Franz and Mark Stoner opposing the pay raise. But that wasn't the only issue to which the board couldn't agree that evening.

The meeting began with an impassioned speech from a constituent, asking the board not to pass the pay raise.

Find out what's happening in Mehlville-Oakvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“This is not the time nor the place,” he said, speaking of the weakened economy.

But supporters of the measure, including Chief Financial Officer Noel Knobloch, argued that this is the time and, in the name of fairness, it is the place.

Find out what's happening in Mehlville-Oakvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Knobloch said the 2010-2011 balances showed an additional $2 million after reducing expense costs and increasing revenue streams. The proposed raise would increase the pay of classified employees who work on an hourly basis. Classified employees include nurses, teacher’s aides, bus drivers and custodial staff.

Knobloch didn’t argue with the state of the economy or the necessity of tightening expenses.

“The pay raise will fit in the budget,” he said.

The expected cost of the raise is approximately $120,000 plus $15,000 in payroll taxes and benefits. It’s the thought of incurring those costs forever that concerned board member Elaine Powers and Mark Stoner.

“I’m not against a salary increase,” Stoner said. “I think you should reward people for doing well. But I think we’re going about this in the wrong way.”

The problem, Stoner said, is the increase to the base rate and the assumed lack of a salary review.

“When you deal with raising the base rate, you want to take in a salary review to see if you’re attracting quality candidates,” he said. “We have plenty of applicants, and that tells me we have the right base rate.”

It was that comment that got a round of heckling from the audience. One woman said that the district has plenty of applicants only because everyone is out of work—a sentiment echoed by Superintendent Eric Knost.

“We have a good pool of candidates, but that has a lot to do with a saturated market right now,” Knost said.

As the audience quieted down, Knobloch explained that a salary review was done two years ago to align Mehlville with the entire St. Louis market.

He also explained that the pay raise is not permanent. Like every other year, salaries can be reviewed and adjusted based on the budget. But, he said, pay raises have to be done in steps. The district can’t afford to not do a pay raise this year but do a 3-percent raise next year.

“It’s an approach that’s workable,” he said. “Is it perfect? No.”

Debate on the issue continued as board members worried what would happen to staff morale if the pay raise was voted down, especially when certified employees, such as teachers, saw a pay raise this fiscal year.

“I think we have a responsibility of consistency,” said board member Larry Felton. “I think we need to be consistent with the classified employees as we did with the certified.”

But that didn’t sit well with board member Rich Franz.

“So we’re going to tell the taxpayers that we’re giving away this money because we want our employees to like us?” Franz said. “Our classified employees realize we live in a new world. There’s a lot more at stake than morale.”

But in the end, maintaining morale was a key factor in the passing vote.

It’s about respect, Ron Fedorchak said.

“And as board members, we can kill morale by our actions,” he said.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Mehlville-Oakville