Covington School Board To Fully Implement New Salary Scale For Fiscal Year 2018-19   Covington, VA (March 5, 2018) - The Covington School Board stunned a capacity crowd tonight by announcing that it would move forward to fully implement a single salary scale in its fiscal 2018-19 budget. This comes after much controversy and disagreement over when and how that scale would be put into place during the course of the last several weeks. Here is the full text of a budgetary document the board provided the crowd: Fiscal Year 2018-2019 Preliminary Budget March 5, 2018 "Attached is a preliminary budget for FY (fiscal year) 2018-2019. This budget includes School Operations ($11,134,136), The Cafeteria Fund ($484,014) and the Textbook Fund ($68,201) for a total of $11,686,351. "State funds for FY 2018-2019 are based on an Average Daily Membership (ADM) of 965. Increasing the ADM projection from 958.4 to 965 resulted in a net increase of $38,582 for Operations and $467 for Textbooks. State funds totalling $68,201 have been included in the Textbook Fund for this budget, but could be used for School Operations if not needed for textbooks. State funds totalling $10,736 have been transferred to the Cafeteria Funds, since these funds are targeted for Child Nutrition. The local appropriation increased by $129,285 from the preliminary budget projection. Other funds are projected to decrease based on reduced funding from The Alleghany Foundation for nursing services. The recommended budget includes one full time and one p0art time bus driver not included in the budget for the current year. Due to a critical shortage, these positions were hired on a temporary basis for the current year, but have been included as part of the attached budget. the cost of these positions is $36,580. We have two teacher retirements next year. The replacement cost for these positions is budgeted at step 0 of the approved salary scale without a Master's degree. The recommended budget includes salary increases as follows: * Head Guidance positions at CHS and JWIS increased to 240 days - cost $15,561. • The approved salary realignment for all teachers not at the top of scale (66) - cost $212,546. • The approved salary realignment for all principals (4) - cost $28,947. • The approved realignment for the following classified staff not at the top of the scale: - School Secretaries (4) - cost $25,825 - Instructional aides (17) - cost $19,315. - Nurses (2) - cost $5,148. - Custodians (3) - cost $2,796. - Maintenance (1) - cost $1,701 - Cafeteria Staff (7) cost $4,897. All salary scales have been reduced to 95% of previous scales with the exception of School Secretaries. The recommended budget does NOT include salary increases for the following: - Any employee at the top or above the top of approved salary scale (33) - Any employee on or above the correct step of the approved salary realignment (4) - Any staff houses in the Central Office - cost of approved realignment for two Central Office staff not at the top of the scale - $2,132. The 5% rate increase for health insurance has been passed to employees with the exception of minimum employer contribution requirement. Total Budget increase is $7,224. Decreases in Operations include: - $5,000 for e-rate consultation - $5,400 for retiree health care contributions - $2,000 for SOL luncheon celebration - $9,201 for Dual Enrollment - $8,609 for Summer School - $13,932 for Internet, WAN, Cable and Telephone Service based on current estimates for Shentel. The recommended budget includes $72,303 for contingencies. The Cafeteria and Textbook funds are in balance with the preliminary budget. The Cafeteria fund will require $124,143 in transfer funds from School Operations for next year.

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