Commissioners to consider raise for county school board

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Shelby County Schools board members could get a $10,000 pay raise through a proposal under consideration by county commissioners.

The Shelby County Commission’s education committee discussed a pay raise ordinance Wednesday, but sent it to the full commission without a recommendation.

Sponsored by commissioners Walter Bailey and Heidi Shafer, the ordinance would raise school board member pay from $15,000 to $25,000 and the board chairman’s pay from $16,000 to $26,000.

The school board’s work is “herculean,” Bailey said. “They’ve got a job that I wouldn’t envy.”

Shafer cited the success the board has had, in particular with the Innovation Zone school turnaround model, which is outperforming the state’s Achievement School District model.

The school board is putting in the hours and seeing results, she said.

Funding for the increase, which would total $90,000 for the nine board members, would come from the school board’s budget, but no budget amendment was included in the ordinance, said Harvey Kennedy, county chief executive officer. School board budget amendments must be approved by the County Commission.

Some commissioners opposed the pay bump, as the school board considers cuts to employee and retiree benefits.

“I‘d like to see where that’s going to go before we start giving raises to the school board,” Commissioner George Chism said.

Most school board members have other jobs, Chism said, but the staff members retired with certain assurances that they would be taken care of.

The board’s current pay was last raised in 2014. Board members had previously been paid $4,200 a year, an amount set in 1988.

The County Commission and Memphis City Council members are paid $29,100 annually.

The full commission will address the ordinance in the first of three readings on Monday.

Also Wednesday, Mayor Mark Luttrell introduced to the commission Kathryn Pascover, his choice for county attorney.

Pascover specializes in employment law with the Ford Harrison firm and was formerly assistant director of law with the city of Akron, Ohio.

If approved by the commission, Pascover would replace Ross Dyer, who is now a judge with the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Western Section.