Board approves salary caps for some employees
SOUTH COVENTRY >> The Owen J. Roberts School Board has approved two regulations that place salary caps on administrative and confidential secretarial positions.
The caps became effective on July 1. They provide minimum, midpoint and maximum salary ranges for Act 93 employees, as well as hourly wage caps for confidential secretaries.
The regulations were unanimously approved by the board and include Regulation 328A, governing the salary determination for administrative employees, and Regulation 508C, implementing hourly wage caps for confidential employees.
Regulation 328A, which will re
main in effect through June 30 2024, includes a range of administrative positions leveled from one through seven, with Range 1 being the highest salaries and Range 7 representing the lower end.
Two job titles are listed at the top of the range, including director of pupil services and high school principal, with a minimum salary of $124,204, a midrange of $149,000 and a maximum of $173,885.
Range 2 includes elementary
and middle school principals, as well as the director of technology and director of facilities, with a minimum salary of $115,921, a midrange of $139,106 and maximum of $162,290.
Below that is Range 3 with the director of finance, director of transportation and chief of security and safety. The minimum salary is $104,303, midpoint is $125,163 and maximum is $146,024.
The ranges decrease through to Range 7, which has a minimum salary of $70,746, a midpoint of $84,895 and a maximum of $99,044. This range is comprised of seven positions including compliance coordinator,
network administrator, staff accountant, system analyst, database coordinator and district technology technician.
Regulation 508C, which will remain in effect through June 30, 2023, provides hourly wage caps for confidential secretaries. That too is based on a range of positions that are leveled from one to four with Range 1 being the highest hourly wage of $40 for 2019-20 and Range 4 being the lowest at $36, also for 2019-20.
This regulation does not include a minimum or midpoint wage, but has yearly maximums through 2022-23, when the hourly wage is capped at $42.25 for Range 1 positions
and $38.20 for Range 4 positions.
According to board President Lisa Huzzard, the Act 93 salary caps and ranges were determined using Pennsylvania School Board Association data on school district salaries statewide. The OJR school board was able to look at comparable districts classified by economic, geographic and other factors, she said.
The decision to place salary caps on both administrative and confidential secretarial positions was prompted by recent turnover, which has required Superintendent Susan Lloyd to hire for several top positions.
Huzzard said Lloyd recommended
that the board provide salary ranges for those positions.
Putting caps on salaries is “nothing different than what goes on in the corporate world or with teachers and teamsters,” Huzzard pointed out.
Both teachers and teamsters unions negotiate contracts for salaries that include caps, but administrators and confidential secretaries have separate contracts.
“We’ve had people here for years and years who kept getting (yearly) increases and they were making way more than the position bears. There was no ceiling,” Huzzard said.
Now, once an administrator
or confidential employee reaches the cap for a position, they won’t continue to get annual raises, although they will still be eligible to get merit bonuses.
The board hopes the caps not only help guide future hiring, but also serve to rein in taxes.
“We’ve had to increase taxes every year,” Huzzard noted. “Capping salaries will control some of those increases.”
Both Regulation 328A and 508C, with listings of salary caps for every range, are available in the policy manual, which can be viewed on the district’s website at www. ojrsd.com.