NAFC approves stipends for classified, administrative staff

Jun. 15—FLOYD COUNTY — New Albany-Floyd County Schools is providing several additional stipends for staff members and increasing starting pay for classified employees.

The NAFC school board at Monday's meeting approved stipends related to duties performed during the pandemic for both district administration and classified staff.

The board already approved stipends in May for teachers related to documented extra duties caused by the pandemic.

The board voted 6-1 Monday to approve $1,250 stipends for administrative staff for documented extra duties related to the pandemic. Like the teacher stipends, the administrative stipends will be supported with money from the federal stimulus funding.

The administrative stipends amount to $1,250, the same approved for teachers last month. There are about 60 administrative workers eligible for the stipend.

NAFC Superintendent Brad Snyder said "documented additional duties that were done by a teacher were also done by a teacher were also done by administrative workers, plus more."

Contact tracing for COVID-19 exposure was among the extra duties administrative staff performed, Snyder said.

"Our principals and central office personnel spent unimaginable hours on weekends, evenings and holidays doing additional duties to notify our public of each new case," he said.

Lee Ann Wiseheart was the only board member to vote against the administrative stipend, attributing it to a different "philosophy" of leadership duties. She said board members also performed extra duties without receiving stipends, and she believed the stimulus funds should be directed elsewhere.

"It's not that I don't appreciate what our administrative leader teams do, it's just that my expectations on a leader are different," she said.

NAFC board member Elizabeth Galligan said she "can't imagine anyone who didn't do extra" during the pandemic.

"I hope that every single person will fill out the paperwork, and I'm just astonished that anyone wouldn't be proud and grateful to every single worker in our corporation for putting their health at risk — that there is extra," she said.

The board also unanimously approved a COVID-19 stipend for all classified staff in the district. The stipend amounts to $750 for those who worked 120 or more days in the past year and $300 for those who worked 90 to 119 days.

"We believe that no matter what your role, this past year played a major role in how you did your job," said NAFC Director of Human Resources Jeanine Corson. "The environment you had to walk into, the emotions, the risk that everyone took — we were all in it together, and this group of people were also in it with us."

The board unanimously approved an updated bus driver contract, which includes a 2% increase in pay for 2021-22, and a 1.75% increase for 2022-23.

The contract includes a memorandum of understanding for a COVID-19 stipend, which amounts to $750 for any drivers who worked at least 120 days and $300 for any drivers who worked between 90 and 119 days.

Unlike the stipends for teachers and administrators, the stipends for classified staff and bus drivers are from local funds, according to Snyder.

"The case for documenting extra duties is much easier for salaried workers," he said. "Fair or not, that is the way this federal grant works. The central administration did not recommend the board use [stimulus] funds for stipends for our hourly workers because we did not want the school board in jeopardy of negative audit findings and the consequences that flow from those documentations."

Classified staff "faced the same pandemic, and we wanted them to receive a stipend to show our appreciation," Snyder said.

The board also voted 7-0 Monday to approve an adjusted pay scale for classified positions. This adjustment increases the starting pay for the food service department to $12 per hour, which is $1.48 higher than the starting pay now.

The starting pay for instructional aides will be increased to $13, or $1.94 higher. About 200 employees will be affected by these changes to the classified staff pay scale.

"It is a raise, but this is a strategic move for one purpose — to compete in the marketplace," Snyder said. "We want to compete, we need to compete, and that comes down to introductory pay level, and that's why we're recommending this."