To make Jefferson County school district jobs more competitive, the school board has allocated $24.5 million for compensation increases to all employees.
"I believe our directive has been very consistently that we want to compensate comparably all employees across all groups," said board President Ron Mitchell. "I hope that we have put enough money in the placeholder that will do that."
On June 2, the board is scheduled to approve the 2016-17 school year budget, including the placeholder for additional employee compensation, pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations with the teachers' union and the classified workers' union.
This year, the district has aroughly $1 billion budgetto operate from, a number that staff said is not reflective of the actual spending, but rather represents each dollar which moves through the district.
For information about what is funded, refer to the draft budget at www.jeffcopublicschools.org/finance/index.html.
Jeffco as a whole
Jeffco is the state's second-largest district with 86,000 students and 14,000 staff, of which 5,000 are licensed professionals.
Currently, 77 percent of the district's budget goes toward compensation, a major item in the budget and one on the minds of teachers and professional support staff across the district.
General Fund
The General Fund is the district's largest individual fund and is responsible for paying administration costs, compensation, operational and maintenance costs.
For the 2016-2017 school year, the district has budgeted $698.5 million in expenditures. Since 2009-2010, Jeffco has not been receiving tens of millions each year due to the negative factor, a number reflecting the amount of money Jeffco is not receiving each year due to a reduction in statewide K-12 education funding since 2010. In sum, the district has received $485 million less in funding since the 2009-2010 school year due to this.
This year, the total amount of General Fund expenditures is $698,537,409. That total does not include charter school funding, which the state gives to the district, which passes it directly to the charters.Within the General Fund, the district has a $38.2 million increase in both one-time and on-going expenditures. Of this, $22.4 million will be allocated for on-going costs and $15.8 million for one-time uses. These line items are outlined in the Board Priorities section.
Compensation
Currently, $550.5 million --; or 79 percent --; of Jeffco's General Fund expenditures goes toward employee compensation.
Seventy-four percent of compensation reflects the salaries for licensed staff, 16 percent is support staff, 6 percent is school-based administration and 4 percent is central administration.
In the 2016-2017 budget, the board has allocated about $477 million for licensed professionals compensation. Within that number is a $14.1 million, 2.7 percent salary increase and a $10.4 million, 2 percent one-time increase given as stipends districtwide.
Board Priorities
This year, the board has allocated a $22.4 million placeholder for ongoing costs, including a 2.7 percent salary increase, additional clinic aide hours at schools, the hiring of additional full time mental health support staff. It also is giving additional monies to school security, financial services and the Wheat Ridge gifted and talented program.
The board also allocated $15.8 million in one-time funding, including a $10.4 million placeholder for a districtwide one-time 2 percent stipend.
Both the one-time and ongoing compensation placeholders are pending the outcome of ongoing union negotiations.
The remaining $5.4 million is allocated for additional funding for mental health staff; athletics pay, costs, trainers and equipment; choice enrollment; website improvements; districtwide unified improvement plan support; establishment of the Candelas and Rose Stein school campuses; professional development for hard-to-staff schools; human resources; IT support; and hiring additional teachers for outdoor lab.
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.comhttp://arvadapress.com/stories/Employee-pay-looms-large-in-Jeffco-School-201617-budget,213234?branding=15
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