- Unionized LCS support staff will receive a $1 per hour pay increase for the whole 2024-2025 school year.
- The decision was made final at the Leon County school board meeting Tuesday.
- Watch the video to hear how one paraprofessional feels about the news:
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Support staff at our Leon County Schools are getting a pay raise.
At Tuesday's school board meeting, leaders approved a pay and benefits increase for union paraprofessionals and other support staff.
The board also approved a plan to improve one of our elementary schools.
Valencia Hargrett has been a paraprofessional at Sabal Palm Elementary for 30 years.
"We are really the backbone of the teachers. We support the teachers so we are right behind them 100%," Hargrett said.
She said her union, the Leon Educational Staff Professional Association, is happy to get a pay increase this school year.
"We are struggling so the faster we can get these raises, the faster these people can get the money in their pockets," Hargrett said.
The Leon County School Board ratified the proposal for a new pay and benefits package Tuesday.
Union support staff will get a $1 per hour pay raise and two extra days of bereavement leave.
Support staff at Gretchen Everhart School will receive an additional stipend on top of the raise.
They work with students with intellectual disabilities.
"They work really hard and having them make the same pay as everyone in the district, it's kind of hard for me to accept," Hargrett said.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna said it's a win for that staff and the district.
"Just making good on the commitment I made to this community and our employees that would push as many resources down as we possibly could into our schools, into our classrooms and for salary increases for our employees," Hanna said.
Hanna and the board also approved a "turnaround plan" for Apalachee Tapestry Magnet School of the Arts.
That school received a D-grade from the Department of Education last school year.
The plan includes progress monitoring, instructional changes based on student needs, increased teacher capacity and more.
"Coming out of the pandemic, some schools were more successful than others," Hanna said.
Apalachee did see test scores improve from a 16% proficiency in science to a 23%, after the district implemented similar plans last year.
And at schools across the district, Hargrett said paras and other support staff are helping students thrive.
"Without us, it's kind of hard for the teachers to do it on they own," Hargrett said.
Hanna said the raise for support staff will be retroactive to July 1.
