T-R PHOTOS BY SUSANNA MEYER — MCSD Superintendent Theron Schutte explains his recommendation for a three percent pay increase for administrators, while board member Leah Stanley listens.

The Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) board of education approved multiple pay increases for certain groups of employees, including administrators, transportation staff and several others, during a regular meeting on Monday night.

MCSD Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan said that transportation representatives had requested a 25 cent hourly increase in each step for drivers, plus the step increase during the 2022 Transportation Meet and Confer session. Transportation representatives also requested that monitor pay be increased by $1.25 an hour on each step and activity pay be increased from $12.50 an hour to $15 an hour during the week and to $17 an hour on the weekends.

Ryan recommended the board approve a step increase if applicable, a 50 cent increase to each step on the bus driver’s salary schedule and a $1.25 increase for monitor pay on each step. She also recommended increasing activity pay from $12.50 an hour to $15 an hour for all trips, including weekends.

“They requested 25 cents, but we’re excited that we are able to give them 50 cents, which they were pretty excited about given that their representative had asked for a quarter,” Ryan said.

These increases will cost MCSD $19,706 for the 50 cent increase for drivers, $16,002 for the $1.25 increase per hour for monitors. Ryan estimated a cost change to activity trips of $12,000.

Marshalltown Community School District Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan goes over the various pay increases requested by staff groups during 2022 Meet and Confer sessions.

These increases received unanimous approval from the board, and they will take effect on July 1.

Ryan also recommended a three percent wage increase for a group of employees classed as “other staff,” which includes human resources administrative assistants, business office staff, technology department staff, salaried foodservice employees, school/student resource specialists, school resource officers, juvenile court officers and the auditorium manager.

“It’s just this other group of staff that’s really not encompassed in any of the other groups, so we wanted to help those folks out and just state that for that group, we recommend a three percent increase,” Ryan said.

This will help staff like student resource specialists who are grouped with certified staff but not covered by their pay increases, according to Ryan. There will also be certain exceptions to the three percent increase.

Two human resources administrative assistants would be receiving a $1.80 increase per hour to bring their wages in line with the Iowa Workforce range of $18.01-$23.05 per hour for the region.

Ryan recommended similar increases for IT staff members — $2 per hour, and $4 per hour for a staff member with a higher educational degree — to bring their pay closer to the pay available in the region. A 75 cent increase for a payroll specialist was also recommended.

The pay increases for the employees in the “other staff” category also received unanimous board approval.

Ten and 12-month secretaries and administrative assistants also requested a pay increase at their 2022 Meet and Confer gathering. Ryan recommended an overall 3.07 percent increase including step advancement if applicable with a 20 cent increase on each step. This would cost the district $37,826, and the board approved the increase unanimously.

The board also approved a step advancement and a 25 cent per hour increase for operation, maintenance and full-time transportation personnel — resulting in a cost of $58,114.13 for the district — pending the Buildings and Grounds group ratification of their 2022-2023 agreement with the MCSD.

Superintendent Theron Schutte then shared the Administrators 2022 Meet and Confer three percent recommendation with the board, which would result in a cost of $111,874. This would cover the salaries for directors and building principals, among others.

Schutte also recommended that administrators covering Saturday school or instructing Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) training in the evenings be compensated at $50 per hour, effective retroactively starting Jan. 18.

The board approved the three percent increase for administrators unanimously.

In other business, the board:

• Heard an update from the Student School Board Representatives.

• Heard a presentation from Marshalltown High School (MHS), and an overview of the scuba diving education at MHS.

• Heard about the updates to 2022-2023 MCSD student handbooks.

• Approved a $1,000 donation from First United Methodist Church of Marshalltown to purchase books for Rogers Elementary School students.

——

Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or smeyer@timesrepublican.com.