Dr. Bradley's Special Message Regarding FY 26 Budget and Results of Class and Compensation Study
TEAM,
This message is to let you know that during last night’s meeting of the Board of Education, the FY’26 budget was tentatively approved. If you have been following our budget development process, then you know that this proposal has been moderated to account for reductions in state funding and unavoidable expenses related to rising insurance premiums, retirement contributions, and other critical factors. Perhaps more importantly, the FY ‘26 budget proposal also reflects a major step toward fulfilling one of our Board’s long-contemplated priorities, which is to categorically improve staff compensation.
To aid in your understanding, allow me to share a few key findings from our work over the past several months.
What the Study Revealed
Last spring, a classification and compensation study was commissioned by our Board – not solely for the purpose of improving compensation, but to study our district’s market competitiveness. Our analysis brought into clear focus several important insights. For example, we learned that for teachers, which is our largest job family, Newton County Schools compensation ranges were considered to be “moderately competitive”, although limited to the first five years of service. We also learned that compensation competitiveness for teachers dramatically falls off during the service years of 5–14. Perhaps more telling, is that competitiveness became even less so for veteran teachers – those with 15 years of service through retirement age. Ironically, the average years of service for a Newton County Schools teacher is 14, so, we sought to concentrate our salary improvement efforts where most of our teachers are currently positioned in their careers.
In addition, the study also revealed significant opportunities to improve compensation for all of our classified employees – but especially custodians, food and nutrition specialists, and paraprofessionals. Our Board recognizes the important role that each of these employee groups play in the success of our district, and, again strong efforts were made to advance their pay through a new and refined compensation model.
Pursuing Clarity and Efficiency
As a corollary to exploring where salary enhancements were needed most, the study also identified the need for a more transparent, modern, and operationally efficient compensation framework. You’ll note that the proposed model reduces the reliance on leadership stipends as a supplemental form of compensation, and instead, introduces clearly structured roles and pay scales; for example, the model incorporates a pay structure for specified role designations such as Coordinator I–IV and Director I–IV. As we are currently organized, there are differences in qualifications and scopes of responsibility for employees with these titles. We subsequently sought to create distinction among them while also creating opportunities for advancement and promotion within the organization that does not currently exist.
Executive-Level Roles
What is not apparent, is that the model (pending Board approval) will not immediately apply for positions with the prefix titles of Executive Director, Assistant Superintendent, and Chief – positions that collectively represent the district’s smallest job families. This is because the Board adopted an executive compensation model last year, and that payment structure will remain in place for the moment.
What Now, What’s Next
You should know that the work of our Board, supported by the Divisions of Business Services and Human Resources, and spanning nearly 13 months, represents the culmination of significant research and evaluation, district comparables, and multiple other factors. As a consequence, we believe to have arrived at a strong and competitive framework that rewards and honors each of our job families and pushes Newton County Schools to be competitive with regional school districts within relative proximity to us.
For your review, I have included the recommended, and tentatively approved salary scale below. However, I must remind you that the scale has not been fully approved or adopted -- only tentatively so. Please also note that the proposed compensation model and the budget altogether is just that - a proposal - and is scheduled for final consideration and approval during the May 20 Board Meeting.
In the coming days and weeks, there will certainly be a few additional matters to sort out which is predictable for such a historic, expansive, and transformative effort - but it is the shared sentiment of our Board and myself that you are worth it!
I will be in touch again very soon on this matter.
Sincerely,
Duke
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