Wake County passes $3,750 bonus for school workers, higher pay for substitute teachers
Wake County school leaders hope a new round of $3,750 in bonuses approved on Tuesday night will help stem the tide of employee protests that have disrupted the school district over the past few weeks.
The Wake County school board unanimously approved Tuesday using $80.7 million in federal COVID relief dollars to provide $3,750 in employee bonuses that will be given in three installments in January, May and November of 2022. Including the $1,250 bonus approved this month, full-time employees will get a total of $5,000 in bonuses by this time next year.
If there’s enough funding, David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, said it’s the district’s desire to provide an additional $1,250 employee bonus in early 2023.
The new bonuses come after bus drivers and cafeteria workers have separately held sickouts this month to protest their pay and working conditions. Wake, like other school districts across the state and the nation, are facing severe staffing shortages that have forced the remaining workers to do more.
“We will be able to get more money into the pockets of employees,” school board chairman Keith Sutton said in an interview.
Higher pay for substitute teachers
The board also unanimously approved Tuesday raising the daily rate paid to substitute teachers. Subs who have a teaching license will now get $130 a day instead of the state rate of $103. Subs who don’t have a teaching license will now get $104 a day, up from the state rate of $80.
It will cost $2.2 million using local funds to raise sub pay. There’s a nationwide shortage of substitute teachers.
“We all know this is long overdue for our substitute teachers,” said school board vice chairwoman Lindsay Mahaffey.
When no subs are available, teachers, instructional assistants and even assistant principals and principals are tapped to help cover classes to make sure there’s an adult supervising the students.
Raising employee salaries
Wake will need approval from the state Department of Public Instruction to use the federal COVID funds for bonuses. But that approval is expected.
Some school board members asked Tuesday about using the one-time COVID dollars to provide pay raises. Neter said that request would likely be rejected by the state.
But Kristin Beller, president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators, told the board that it needs to exhaust all its options in case they do get permission. She says raises would be more useful than bonuses for recruiting and keeping employees.
On Monday, Republican state legislative leaders unveiled a budget that includes raising the minimum salary for school support staff to $13 per hour this year. The budget would raise the minimum salary to $15 an hour next year.
The state provides the base pay, with school districts supplementing the salaries when they can.
Earlier this month, the school board voted to raise the minimum salary to $13 an hour. Wake NCAE wants a minimum $17 per hour salary for non-certified staff.
Ana Stratis, cafeteria manager at Hilburn Academy in Raleigh, told the school board that she and her fellow child nutrition workers are feeling exhausted. When her coworkers ask how she’s doing, Stratis tells them she’s surviving.
“I no longer want to survive,” Stratis said. “I want to live. I want a living wage.”
School leaders have met with their counterparts in county government about getting additional funding this year to raise pay. Superintendent Cathy Moore said information will be presented at the Dec. 7 school board meeting on how much it would cost to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 and also to $17 an hour.
“I’m really looking forward to taking action Dec. 7th,” said board member Karen Carter, who was an instructional assistant in Wake before she was elected last year. “It’s beyond time to take action.”
But school administrators cautioned that it will be an expensive action to take.
“We’ve got to do something to move beyond the $13, but I’m just going to temper that a little bit with the reality that in order to do it, we’ve got to find the funding, and it’s significant,” Neter said.
Wake signs agreement for COVID testing program
In other action Tuesday:
▪ The board voted 8-1 to enter into an agreement with Mako Medical to begin a voluntary COVID-19 testing program for students and school employees. The state will pay Mako and parents will need to give consent for their children to be tested.
Roxie Cash was the lone no vote.
▪ The board voted 8-1 to extend Superintendent Cathy Moore’s contract by one year through June 2025. The contract extension does not include a raise. Her base salary is $299,280.
Board member Christine Kushner said extending contract would provide stability to district. Carter was the lone no vote.
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 7:50 PM with the headline "Wake County passes $3,750 bonus for school workers, higher pay for substitute teachers."
