Gilmer County School System staff are set to receive a 2 percent bump in pay.
At the Gilmer County Board of Education’s May 17 work session, superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs discussed increasing the local supplement from 8 percent to 10 percent for classified and certified staff.
“Our local supplement for all of our staff has stayed at 8 percent. It was at 8 percent when I came here (in 2015),” Downs said. “I came from a system that had a lower supplement, so 8 percent sounded great to me. In recent years, we have had fewer applicants for the positions we have advertised for, especially in early-childhood education.
“In the past, for every position, we’d have 15 to 20 applicants and we have not been seeing that lately.”
Downs gathered data through an “informal survey” from districts who are members of the North Georgia Regional Service Agency and the Pioneer Regional Service Agency and noted Gilmer’s local supplement has been lagging.
“Fannin is the only system that is below us. They’re at 6 percent and are talking about going to 7 percent or 8 percent,” Downs said. “Murray is increasing theirs to 9 percent for next year. Pickens is increasing their local supplement to 10 percent.
“Cherokee County has a completely different supplement schedule where they start their beginning teachers at 25 percent so it’s no wonder we lose teachers to Cherokee County. Whitfield is increasing their local supplement, and Dawson is at 13 percent.”
Of course an increase in to the local supplement affects the system’s budget. Finance director Trina Penland said a 2-percent increase to the local supplement will increase the budget by $600,000 per year.
Unlike the aforementioned counties, Gilmer is the only one with an unlimited school tax-exemption for those 65 years and older. While counties such as Cherokee have a larger tax base, its millage rate is also 7-percent higher than Gilmer’s.
The system does not anticipate an increase to the millage rate with rising land values and mentioned the supplement increase would also be funded with state and federal money.
“Based on what they’re reporting, we’re anticipating quite a bit of a rollback because they were saying some property values are up 40 percent,” Penland said. “There is no guarantee what that is going to be, but every year since 2014 we’ve rolled back at least to the rollback percentage. So we have either rolled back every year or held the same.
“That $600,000, some of that is funded with grants. It’s not going to just impact the general fund. You’ll see that in various different funds.”
The 2-percent increase was unanimously passed at the board’s regular session May 20.
“I wish we had been able to do it sooner, but I think it will help and show support for the teachers,” Downs said last week. “We’re one of the few school systems in the state that stayed open from the beginning to the end (during the pandemic) without ever closing a school. That’s because of the staff, and I think they deserve that local increase.
“I’m very happy this has come to fruition for all of the staff. I think sometimes when we look at raises, everybody talks about how the teachers need raises. But this isn’t just the teachers. Nothing functions without our bus drivers, cafeteria works, custodians and all that. It’s an increase for all staff across the board.”
Downs noted that most of the staff is in place for next school year but they are still filling paraprofessional, bus driving and custodial positions.