Scott Co. Board of Education implementing pay raise

SCOTT CO., KY (WTVQ) — Today Scott Co. Superintendent Billy Parker announced the district has 11 SRO positions and just under 100 other school positions open.

“We’ve done a lot of work between Monday and today to really cut those numbers down,” said Parker. “So, I’m not worried about where we’re at compared to where we need to be for next week. But, certainly it is something that every year we’re finding we’re working up until the midnight hour trying to fill our vacancies.”

With students returning to the classroom in less than a week the district is looking for incentives to bring in new hires.

Parker spoke about one they just implemented, a five percent salary raise.

But how will they pay for that raise?

“So what we’re proposing for our community is a 4.7 cent increase in our taxes for every 100 dollar of assessed real estate value that we have.”

Parker says every year, the district notices the staff shortage continues to grow.

That’s why they are implementing the pay raise for all Scott. Co school members. Parker says one of the main reasons for the increase is so they can compete with surrounding counties.

“The issue we’ve been having is it’s difficult to compete when we haven’t been able to provide the same rate of compensation that others around us are. And that’s what we’re trying get at here.”

Along with wanting to hire more teaching staff, Parker is looking to hire more SRO’s.

Parker says the hope is to have at least one SRO in each school and two in each high school. Which would mean 19 total SRO’s for the district.

“The big driving force in this rate increase is the fact that we are wanting to offer that five percent salary raise to every staff member for Scott county schools. And we want to provide one dedicated full-time SRO in every school in Scott county.”

Right now, Scott Co. has hired four SRO’s for the schools and one dare officer.