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McDonald board increase sub pay
McDONALD
The McDonald school board has approved increases in the hourly rate of several nonclassified substitute positions, and the daily rate for substitute teachers, effective Oct. 1, in an effort to find substitutes who will work for the now higher pay.
Treasurer Bill Johnson explained the board was forced to cut the hourly rate of substitutes by the state commission overseeing the district after it was placed in state fiscal emergency in October 2009.
The district was removed from fiscal emergency in February 2012.
Previously, a substitute’s rate was the same as the bottom-scale hourly rate for union personnel in the same position. But the rates were pared back considerably by the state and the school board.
Although the district does not have a high-volume need for bus-driver substitutes, for example, it also has a hard time getting those subs because the McDonald pay was so low.
Effective Oct. 1, the increases for some of the substitutes are: bus drivers, from $10.50 an hour to $12; cooks, from $8 to $9 an hour; domestic cleaner, from $8.50 to $9 an hour; and custodians from $8.50 to $10 an hour.
Substitute teachers’ pay will go from $75 to $80 a day.
The board also approved a $268,397 shared-services contract with Trumbull County for this school year. The district contracts with the county to provide assistance with special-needs students.
A change in the price of student lunches may be coming for the 2015-16 school year, Johnson said.
Items such as bread and milk have increased in cost for the district’s purchasing this year, Johnson said. Student and teacher lunch costs, however, will remain the same as last year — $3 for adults; $2.50 for students; and 50 cents for milk.
The board also will continue to pay $25 per hour for campus patrol for the district for the school year.