The Poplar Bluff R-I School Board has approved a $1,250 increase to the base salary for fiscal year 2022.
This increase includes the addition of a step on the certified salary schedule, plus a comparable amount added to the classified salary schedule.
Out of three salary increase options presented to the board last month, the $1,250 increase was the largest.
Superintendent Dr. Scott Dill had originally recommended the second option, a $1,000 increase, but the board members decided to choose the larger option.
“I think we have the best staff all around,” board member Roger Hanner said Thursday, at the board’s regular monthly meeting.
Dill concurred, saying, “We have amazing people who work in this school district.”
Board president John Scott said, “I think we are the destination school in our area, and we should pay our people accordingly.”
The motion passed unanimously.
This raises the base salary to $35,336. Assistant superintendent Dr. Amy Jackson pointed out that the largest option was within the district’s planned budget for the next fiscal year.
“We have been good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Dill added.
In other business, the board approved Dille Pollard Architecture as the architect for a Community Development Block Grant Workforce grant application to fund a state-of-the-art Culinary Arts training facility at the district’s Technical Career Center.
If approved, the grant would provide up to $500,000 for the facility, whose plans include a kitchen, cooking lab, dining room, classrooms, freezers, storage and public access.
As summer approaches, the board made plans to submit requests for bids for a variety of necessary maintenance projects at locations throughout the district.
These plans include the roof at the Oak Grove gym, middle school gym bleachers and playground improvements, high school auxiliary gym bleachers, HVAC at the Kay Porter Theater, a new elevator at the junior high, improvements at Eugene Field, a handicapped-accessible front entrance at the TCC, and roof repairs and board room carpet replacement at the Central Office.
Program evaluations regarding school climate and safety along with professional development were presented and accepted.
All of Poplar Bluff’s schools were evaluated as “safe, with the proper climate for learning,” according to Assistant Superintendent Fara Jones.
Assistant Superintendent Patty Robertson reported the district will again be unable to use all the funds budgeted for professional development this year as last year, due to the lack of available training opportunities as a result of continued COVID-related restrictions both regionally and nationwide.
Although districts are usually required to spend a certain amount on professional development, exceptions were made last year due to COVID. Similar exceptions are expected to be offered again for this fiscal year.
In the superintendent’s report, Dill reported COVID cases and quarantines in the district are still running below 1%.
As a result, the district will continue with plans for the upcoming prom as well as graduation, which is scheduled for May 20 at the Poplar Bluff Coliseum.