Nov. 15—FLOYD COUNTY — The New Albany-Floyd County school board recently approved pay raises for district staff.
The board voted unanimously at Monday's meeting to approve the 2023-2025 collective-bargaining agreement for NAFCS teachers.
The NAFCS board also voted unanimously to provide pay raises for classified staff. This includes an increase of 75 cents per hour, bringing the starting pay to $15 an hour.
Associate Superintendent Louis Jensen shared the new salary structure for teachers, noting that the contract includes a "fixed dollar" raise instead of a percentage raise. Every teacher will receive a minimum raise of $2,200 for the first year.
The district "really stretched our monetary contribution this year," he said.
"We're really excited about this contract," he said. "We think it's a good one."
The starting salary is $48,200, and the top salary is $81,950.
"We put all of the new money really into that first year, so we really feel comfortable [that] a lot of our teachers are getting a great raise this year," Jensen said.
He said he feels this was the "most respectful, problem-solving [and] congenial conversation."
"I've been on both sides in the past," Jensen said. "I've been on the adversarial, and it's not fun. Sometimes in our conversations in the [recent] bargaining process, you couldn't tell who an administrator was and who a teacher was. We were trying to problem-solve things."
Lisa McIntyre, president of the NAFC Education Association, voiced her support for the contract at Monday's meeting. She said that of the teachers union members who voted on the agreement, 96% voted in favor.
Jenny Higbie, an NAFCS board member, said "we appreciate our teachers beyond measure."
Regarding the classified staff increases, NAFCS Superintendent Travis Madison said he hopes that the pay raise will make the district more competitive.
On average, the changes amount to an increase of about 5.8%, he said.
"So that would be something that would hopefully place us in a position to where we could be very competitive with industry outside of here to encourage more folks to come on in classified roles," Madison said.