When Rocky Hanna gives raises, he gives big. At least to School executives. The average percent increase for a non-union American was 3.8% last year. According to the Pay Type 9 document, that our neighbor Joe Burgess published, one employees received a 32% raise in one year in the same position. The next year she was promoted to Assistant Superintendent and saw another 9%.
In a recent post we explained how Pay Type 9 provides different benefits to the employees. But we walked away with more questions than answers and couldn’t put this document down. The more we looked the more we saw large raises being handed out without a clear pattern as to why.
Mr. Shively, HR director and Chief negotiator with the teachers, received a raise of about 20.5% over the past three years(average 6.8% per year).
Other large raises were seen by an interdivisional director who received 9% last year alone.
Naomi Coughlin, recently featured in a campaign ad for Rocky Hanna, received 6% increase in just her final year working at Leon Schools. While under Hanna’s leadership, she received a total of $28,765 in raises.
Questionable Choices
The School board’s choices are raising questions in the community. From the purchase of $8,000,000 artificial turf to the process of handling a natural disaster. Many community groups are now discussing the state wide shooting threat. Many parents are dissatisfied that the school is not excusing absences. Most recently we discovered that they haven’t been paying their fire service fees.
Hanna stated at a recent school board meeting that increase cost in Pay type 9 was simply just reclassifying employees to that pay type. However, we see that is only partially true. Many School Executives in this pay type are getting excessive raises at the cost of our teachers.
The School Board states they value our teachers and students. However, their spending choices show us a different value. The impact of this list can be felt throughout schools. Teachers feel like they are being paid last and support staff feel underappreciated. Parents feel like there aren’t enough resources for their children. Very few people are seeing a benefit of these raises.
While the community continues to be told there isn’t any funding the impact is that we are losing trust in our local governments. We don’t look at intentions, we look at the impact.
