After years of noncompetitive support staff pay and minimal raises, the Pasco County school district on Tuesday made a contract offer aimed at making up for lost time.
During collective bargaining, the district proposed increasing all support employees’ wages to at least $15 per hour, as mandated by state law. It would make the pay retroactive to July 1, which the state does not require.
To get there, the district would spend just over $18 million, which is nearly seven times more money than it put into staff pay with one-time supplements last year. About $12 million is tied to the state’s minimum wage rule, while the district is committing the rest.
The plan would boost all 3,639 workers’ hourly rate by at least 5%, with nearly 450 of them getting raises of 52%, according to a district analysis.
It also would include provisions aimed at eliminating wage compression, which has some long-time staff members earning the same amount as less experienced new hires or, in some cases, the same amount as people they supervise.
With a nod to the critical need for bus drivers and assistants, the district further offered a “return to work” one-time payment of up to $2,500 for eligible transportation employees. There’s about $155,000 in federal funds available for that purpose.
“We need to get kids safely to school,” employee relations supervisor Tom Neesham said, noting that the district cannot accommodate for transportation vacancies as easily as it can for openings within...
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