Update: The special board meeting to deal with the pay issue has been scheduled for noon Thursday in the Toepfer Board Room at the Rockwell Administration Center.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Certain USD 489 staff members received a pay increase that was not approved by the USD 489 school board and could have to pay some of that money back.

Classified staff and administrators received a pay increase in July of 4.6 percent.

“That never should have happened,” Superintendent John Thissen said Monday. “That 4.6 percent should have never happened.”

This did not include custodians or paraprofessionals.

Custodians were in their final year of negotiations with its union, SEIU, and the board has already approved a contract that included a 4.6 percent raise for 28 people under that contract. The board also approved a $2 per hour increase for paraprofessionals beginning this school year in attempts to recruit and retain more staff in these special education positions.

The board has offered teachers a 3.6 percent pay increase, but those contract negotiations have reached impasse. The teachers say they want the 4.6 percent raise the rest of the staff has received.

Thissen said administration and classified staff raises are usually approved by the board after contract negotiations are concluded with the teachers. Administration and classified staff are usually given the same raise as teachers.

The school board now must decide if it wishes to officially give the administrators and classified staff the 4.6 percent raise, the 3.6 percent raise it is offering teachers or some other pay increase that has not yet been identified.

If the board approves a raise less than the 4.6 percent the classified staff and administrators are currently receiving, those staff members would essentially have to pay back the difference. This would take the form of wage reductions until the excess pay was accounted for.

The director of finance position for the district is currently open, but Thissen said the pay mistake occurred before Tracy Kaiser, former finance director, left her post. Thissen took responsibility for the pay error, saying the mistake originated in his office.