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Classified employees, administrators at HCCSC to get pay increase soon

Classified employees and administrators in the Huntington County Community School Corporation  will soon see an increase in their pay.

The Board of School Trustees approved compensation increases at its regular meeting Monday, Aug. 22.

Assistant Superintendent for Business and Classified Staff Jon Bennett explained that the cost of raises for classified staff will amount to an estimated additional $200,000 per year.

Employees will receive a 2 percent, 4 percent or 6 percent increase, based on a performance evaluation system that also takes into account an employee’s length of service and completed professional development.

School secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodial staff, technology staff and bus drivers are among employees who will receive raises.

Superintendent Randy Harris said each administrator will receive an average of $3,500, adding about $60,000 per year to the budget.

The approval of the pay increases comes on the heels of a new contract with teachers approved at the last board meeting.

Board members also unanimously approved the purchase of nine new 72-passenger school buses at a cost of $773,376. The corporation had set aside $806,413 for buses, and the remainder will be spent on miscellaneous parts.

Transportation Director Vanessa Fields said the new buses will replace those that are more than 12 years old. The old buses will be made available for purchase back to vendors by bids.

“Once they get to 12 years old they have to be inspected twice a year,” she explained. “So most of the corporations, that’s why I think the trade-in value is not great on them.”

Fields added that a transit bus will be ready to be replaced during the corporation’s next bus purchase.

In other business:

• Board members heard a preliminary review of the 2017 estimated budget presented by Bennett. He said enrollment was at 5,716.42 in 2010 and has declined to 5,004.5 in 2016. The count went up somewhat in 2015, when kindergarten students began to be counted as full time students. Bennett told the board the numbers reflect a historical trend.

“Going back and looking at some of the enrollment figures when Crestview Middle School was built almost 20 years ago, we had almost 7,000 students in Huntington County,” he said. “We’ve essentially lost 100 students a year over the last 18 years.”

However, he added he anticipates the corporation will only lose about $25,000 in revenue due to the drop in enrollment.

“For me, I think that’s good news, because that doesn’t mean we’re going to lose a lot of money into the general funds,” Bennett told the board. “In terms of general fund revenue, I will say to you I don’t anticipate that we’ll have a drop compared to what we had last year. If we do, $25,000 is not bad when you’re looking at an over $30 million general fund budget. That’s pretty good news.”

The corporation’s official student count day is Friday, Sept. 16. The number of students in attendance that day will figure into its advertised budget. Special education numbers are not due until December, and career and technical education student numbers are due in November.

• The board revisited the issue of creating a study hall at the high school, discussing at length the pros and cons of including a study hall period and which students would be allowed to take the study period.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Chad Daugherty said Huntington North High School Principal Russ Degitz has been developing a policy which will be presented to the board at its Sept. 26 meeting. He said that questions about whether to offer study hall mid-year or at the beginning of next semester, as well as whether to have a paraprofessional or a certified teacher in the study hall class, are under consideration.

“We want to make sure it’s a truly focused study hall and not just a 46-minute break,” Daugherty said. “So we’re trying to develop those parameters to make sure that the right students are in that study hall.”
He added that those behind in credits would not be able to take study hall and the period may only be offered to honor students.

Harris said most students would not be allowed to take the study hall period.

“My concern is that this is not to become a free-for-all,” he said. “That has been the practice at many, many high schools over a lot of years, and that’s why most high schools eliminated study hall.”

• The board accepted a three-year lease agreement with WorkOne for $1,200 per month to rent offices at the new Huntington County Community Learning Center. WorkOne has already moved into the facility. The agency will also pay a proportional share of utility costs.

• The board heard, in its first reading, changes to 47 policies. Harris said most were “editorial changes” in wording. No action was taken but the changes will be considered for adoption at the board’s next meeting on Sept. 12.

• Jarod Hammel was approved as head baseball coach at HNHS, as well as Michael Beaver to coach sixth grade boys’ basketball and seventh grade girls’ basketball at Riverview Middle School and Blake Childs to coach seventh grade boys’ basketball, also at Riverview.