Dayton Independent schools Superintendent Jay Brewer announced Monday night at the regular school board meeting that classified staff in the district will receive a $500 salary increase this year.
The raises will be retroactive to the first of this year.
Those classified staffers will also receive a $500 salary increase next year, plus the step increase for years of experience.
Classified staff are employees who don’t have to be certified to work, such as cafeteria workers, janitorial staff, and other workers.
Certified staff are employees who have to receive certification to do their job, such as teachers, principals, and anyone in the teaching position.
Brewer also said the certified staff will receive a $1,000 salary increase next year, plus any step/rank increase that is already in the schedule.
“We have reviewed our salary schedules and completed an analysis comparing our salary schedules with 12 other Northern Kentucky school districts,” said Brewer. “We found that we continue to have disparity in our schedule in which some salary cells, based on years of service and education, are nearly $1,700 above the regional average, while others are nearly $3,900 below the average.”
Brewer went on to say that a teacher at rank II with 27 years experience was $3,252 below the regional average. A teacher at rank II with 10 years experience was $1694 above the regional average. The first teacher’s category had to be increased by the amount of $3252, and the second teacher’s category had to be increased by $500.
“To correct this disparity in our salary schedule, the board is approving raising any salary cell that is below the regional average to the average,” Brewer explained. “If a cell is already at, or above the average, this cell will get a $500 increase. This achieves an important goal of equity across our salary schedule, as compared with our Northern Kentucky region.”
Community members attend meeting to discuss incident at baseball field
Five people came to the meeting to discuss an event that happened at the baseball field on March 30 at a baseball game.
Amy Donnelan, who acted as spokesperson for her family, said there was a woman at the field who was apparently watching the game and rooting for Lloyd, which was playing against Dayton.
She said the woman was using foul language, and acting in a belligerent way, but her family ignored what the person said until the end of the game, when the foul language became personal, and the woman was shouting in the faces of many parents, including Brian Graham and Nicole Lovins. Punches were thrown. The police were called by Donnelan’s family, first by Brian Graham, and then by Nicole Lovins, who are parents to a player on the Dayton team. At some point Graham was blamed for the fighting.
Graham was subsequently cautioned by the school district that he could not attend any more sporting events to watch his son play, or he would not be able to attend his graduation.
The family was incensed that they were blamed as instigators, and they felt they were innocent.
They were told that Superintendent Brewer was not at the game because he had left early due to spring break. They wanted Brewer to call them when he returned after spring break, but Brewer did not call them after spring break, and they came to the meeting to find out why they were not contacted.
Superintendent Brewer said he had been told there was a resolution to the situation, but he agreed after listening to them that obviously there is no resolution and he told the family he would reach out to them this week.
Property acquisition
The board approved 4 BG-1 project application forms, for 4 separate blocks of property that the school district has committed to buying.
One is for the property at 300, 304 and 306 Clay street, one is for 728 Third street, one is 778 Third Street, and the final one for is 768 and 774 Third Street, project 21-357.
The district has already committed to these properties, and the forms are the normal paperwork associated with these projects.
One of the four properties have been demolished, and eventually the district will have room to expand, because their district property is by the river and virtually landlocked.
The four properties do not add much land to the district, less than an acre, and the district would like to acquire more land. No plans are in the works for what they would like to do with the land.
Revenue bond authorization
The school board voted to authorize the Dayton Independent School District Finance corporation to issue refunding revenue bonds.
The amount of the bonds is $2.7 million, and will go toward the purchase of the above mentioned properties, and possibly more properties.
Student achievement
Ella Boyers was recognized as Dayton High Schools’ athlete of the month. Boyers is a valuable player on the softball team, with a .364 batting average, and 6 RBI’s with no errors. She has also achieved All-A All Tournament Team. Superintendent Brewer congratulated her, and mentioned that she plays other sports too.
Anna Karnes was recognized as artist of the month for her improvement in flute skills. Her teacher said that Karnes can always be counted on to know her parts, and she has shown a great will to be the best that she can with her flute.
Several students were invited to participate in a Summer Internship under the Technology Department. Students will participate in cleaning and repairing devices, and running network cable. The program will last from May 31 through July 29 of this year. Students can work up to 6 hours a day, and will make $7.50 per hour.
The new students are Rilan Smith, Braden Fromeyer, and Blake McCarty, and Brayden Hall and Leana Tucker were invited back to the program from last year.
