PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. — After multiple principals have said that they can’t afford to keep people around, the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD) now has plans to address support staff pay.
Support staff includes positions such as custodians, security officers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals, and more.
At Tuesday night’s PCSSD board meeting, every high school principal in the district addressed the board and asked them to raise the pay for these positions.
"As soon as they find out that they can go make more money in other districts doing the same exact job, they're out," said Damian Patterson, the Principal at Mills High School.
Patterson specifically addressed a lack of security personnel throughout the Mills feeder pattern.
The principal of Maumelle High School, Nick Farr, spoke about the struggles with hiring and keeping custodians.
"We've had three custodians quit within a matter of two days,” Farr said. “Because they took a job for higher pay."
And that’s if they even consider the job.
Joe T. Robinson High’s Principal, Michelle Camp, said that all too often, qualified candidates are interested— until they hear about the pay.
"We find that we offer jobs. And a lot of times they happily accept the jobs, but then once they meet with HR, they decline, and so then we have to start the process all over again," Camp told the board. "We have people that want to work for our district, they want to be in the school system, but they just cannot live off of the pay that they are offered."
Yolaundra Williams is the PCSSD’s Assistant Superintendent of HR and she explained how she has been hearing these complaints dating back to well before Tuesday night’s meeting.
“Those are things that have been in conversations for many years,” Williams added.
She also explained how PCSSD has no plans to let the principals’ complaints fall on deaf ears. They plan to take action and begin that process on Tuesday night.
"We presented a proposal to the board to look at the pay for security officers,” Williams said. “Special Ed and 504 paraprofessionals, and bus drivers. And so we proposed a pay change for those areas."
Williams said the board will vote on this proposal at December’s board meeting, and if approved, it would go into effect on January 1, 2025. She also explained that they can't fix everything at once, but hopefully, this pay change will be a start.
“We still have to fall within the confines of our financial ability,” Williams said. “But we do want our employees to know that we are earnestly working towards making our pay more competitive."
As far as the specific amount that pay will be raised, a PCSSD spokesperson shared that information regarding specific numbers has not been put into writing just yet.
The board has not voted on it at this time, but it will appear in December’s board packet which will be released prior to the meeting.
Williams added that pay raises for positions besides security officers, paraprofessionals, and bus drivers could be addressed in future changes.