How employee compensation is determined in the Genesee School District

The District expends 78% of its maintenance and operations funds on salaries and benefits of teachers, classified staff and administrators. That is actually slightly less than the average which ranges from 80-85%.

There are three distinct groupings of employees in the District. The instructional staff includes all certificated professional employees (CPEs) with the exception of the Principal and Superintendent who would be considered administrators. The classified employees include all non-certified employees like bus drivers, secretarial staff, cooks, instructional aides, maintenance, custodial, technology, etc.

The determination of salary differs between the three distinct groups. However, benefits are identical as required by Idaho Code. The District provides a $380 defined contribution toward health insurance for each full time employee per month.

CPEs are paid on a salary schedule that is negotiated annually between the Board of Trustees and the Genesee Education Association. The current salary scheduled is located on the District web site at: www.sd282.org/Employment/0809_sal.pdf. A CPE's actual salary is primarily a function of their educational attainment (degrees and additional credit hours) and years of teaching experience. Nationally Board certified teachers receive an additional stipend of $1,000. The standard Idaho contract is for 190 days. There are a few CPE positions which require a longer contract such as the agriculture teacher, librarian and counselor. In this case the teacher would receive 1/190 for each additional day of their contract.

Classified employees have a compensation schedule approved by the Board of Trustees. The District does not conduct labor negotiations with classified employees, but we do "meet and confer" annually to discuss compensation, benefits and other areas of concern. The classified compensation schedule is located at www.sd282.org/Employment/class_wagescale.pdf.

There are two administrators in the District. The salaries of these employees are determined by the Board of Trustees when each administrator's contract expires. A district is allowed to enter into a two-year contract with principals and a three-year contract with superintendents. As in the case of CPEs, administrators are licensed professionals. While there is no set salary schedule, the Board utilizes comparability studies with surrounding districts to determine the compensation levels for these employees. The Principal is on a 210 day contract and the Superintendent is on a 260 day contract. The Principal earns 9.4% more per day than the highest paid teacher whereas the Superintendent earns 11.3% more per day than the Principal. In the most recently reported State Department financial information, the Genesee District expended $1,081 per ADA for all school and district administration expenses. Only one other similarly sized district (Whitepine) in the area expended less, including those districts who employ half-time district administrators.

It continues to be the philosophy of the School District to recruit and retain the highest quality staff possible. Compensation is one element of maintaining a competent and high quality staff.