Raises on way for Greene teachers

The future of Greene County schools does not include the Health Cottage, but it does have augmented pay scales for division employees.

The approved budget for the 2008-09 school year totals $31.2 million — about $1.5 million more than the 2007-08 budget. Assistant Superintendent David Jeck said the increase primarily consists of staff raises and benefit cost increases.
Many of the division’s teachers will see an increase in their salaries next year. Teachers who have been in Greene for at least a year will get a 3 percent raise, while teachers between pay scale steps five and 23 will get an additional 4 percent or more increase.
The division has been trying to balance out its pay scales to remain competitive. Jeck said the previous pay scale was lacking for teachers in the middle of the pay scale.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Jeck said. “This is our way of fixing the scale to make it more linear.”

The 2008-09 budget also includes an 8 percent raise for all teacher assistants, an 8 percent raise for secretary assistants at step 20 or above, a 3 percent raise for administrators and a 4.25 percent raise for support staff, such as maintenance and bus drivers. The division also has developed a pay scale for the division’s licensed medical professionals.

Greene schools will have more medical professionals next year. A licensed medical professional now will be stationed in each school in the division. Instead of scheduling appointments for ill children at the Health Cottage, the nursing staff will provide medical care to students who came to school that day.
Kelly Shifflett, the schools’ nursing coordinator, said she thinks the change is a positive one.
“We will still be able to provide most of the services but get a higher acuity of care,” Shifflett said.
A discussion about the division’s nursing staff came up during a School Board meeting in February. Several people said they thought Greene schools needed more skilled employees such as licensed practical nurses rather than clinic assistants with limited training. This year three of the schools had trained clinic assistants, while two other schools had licensed practical nurses.

Under the new configuration, Shifflett will move from the Health Cottage to Nathanael Greene Elementary but will continue to serve as the nursing coordinator.
The nurse practitioner previously stationed at the Health Cottage will move to the primary school, where Shifflett said 70 percent of the Health Cottage’s customers are enrolled. The division will need to hire an additional nurse.

The licensed practical nurses will remain at the schools, and Shifflett said the clinic assistants would be offered other open assistant positions within the schools. Jeck could not confirm the status of those assistants.
Eliminating the Health Cottage also will reduce the need for major building repairs.
“The cottage is a trailer,” Jeck said. “We call it a cottage to be nice, but it’s in terrible shape and we would prefer to use it exclusively for storage unless we can fix the floor.”