The Tuscaloosa City Schools is hoping to implement a pay raise across the board for all of its employees.
The Tuscaloosa City Board of Education is now assessing a proposed 1 percent pay raise that would apply to all employees in the school system, whether they be faculty or staff.
“We’ve done this raise for the last two years,” said Deron Cameron, executive director of human resources for TCS.
The school system gave a 1 percent pay raise during the 2015-16 school year and also during the 2016-17 school year. Last year’s raise came following a 4 percent raise to all teachers and employees making less than $75,000 per year in Alabama. But this year’s state budget will not continue the four percent raise, but TCS Superintendent Mike Daria said the school still wants to continue some kind of pay raise.
“The goal is to get us competitive, to have our salaries compete with other school systems in the area,” Daria said. “We want the best teachers in every classroom in this entire school system.”
During the board’s meeting this past Tuesday, District 5 board member Erica Grant said she wanted time to look at upcoming budget before making her decision. “I want to make sure that it’s the absolutely right decision,” Grant said.
The pay raise proposal is coming at a time when the board will be looking at the upcoming system budget for the school year. Though the finalized budget has not been presented to the board yet, Ed LaVigne, chief school financial officer, said he would be happy to break down what the budget will be for interested board members.
Photo courtesy of the Tuscaloosa News