pps.jpg
(Bethany Barnes/The Oregonian)
The Portland school board agreed late Tuesday to spend more than $2.3 million on raises for hundreds of non-union administrative workers after a long debate over how the bump was conveyed to the public.
The increases answer an audit that found Portland Public Schools' pay for administrative staff below what's offered in other comparable districts and municipalities.
"Our folks have not had an increase and they deserve this. They have been working really hard," Chief Financial Officer Yousef Awwad told board members. "We want to just pay them what they really deserve and we have not."
The move comes after months of struggle to fill jobs. As of September, the district had 55 high-level vacancies. Low pay has taken the brunt of the blame, but morale has also been brought up.
The district is fighting to rebuild its image after a lead crisis that helped oust Superintendent Carole Smith. Administrators, however, also faced controversy in 2014 and 2015 over pay raises for Smith and other top officials.
Board members Paul Anthony and Steve Buel complained Tuesday that they asked the district to make it clear before the vote that raises for "non-represented staff" would include a wide range of employees, many of whom are not managers: clerks, analysts, accountants and others.
Compounding board members' concerns, district staff realized mid-hearing that documents detailing affected staff members and salary amounts hadn't been posted on the district's website before the meeting, meaning that information wasn't shared with the public. That information was posted after the vote.
The frustration was enough for Anthony to vote against the raises, despite saying current pay was so low in some cases it was "morally criminal."
Anthony held back support even though he commended the analysis that went into the raises, particularly efforts to find comparable markets around the state and nation.
Board member Mike Rosen issued the other "no" vote, but for different reasons. Rosen cited the expense, despite agreeing many staffers deserve to be paid more. Rosen said the raises need to be more targeted.
Most of the employees who will receive raises earn more than $60,000; the best-paid few pay more than $125,000.
The $2.3 million breaks down as follows:
* Raises for licensed administrators, such as principals and people who oversee academic programming, will cost $600,000. The aim is to "ensure a strong principal and vice/assistant principal in every building who is well-matched to the school community," the board's resolution on the raises says.
* For other administrative staff, such as human resources associates, construction managers, analysts and communications employees, the district would spend $1.7 million on raises, retroactive to July 1. Awwad said the raises stretch back to July 1 because to reflect that employees have not had a cost-of-living increase in five years.
* Raises would also go to senior leadership, such as district lawyers, senior directors and assistant superintendents. But the fiscal impact of those raises has not been calculated and is not part of the $2.3 million fiscal impact estimate because those raises depend on the superintendent's adjustments, according to the resolution. In general, district policy says senior leadership should be paid 15 percent more than other managerial staff, the resolution says.
The district did provide suggested minimum and maximum payments for those roles, putting assistant superintendents and chief general counsel at $136,275 to $177,150 and deputy chief general counsel, senior directors and senior legal counsel on a scale from $118,500 to $154,050.
Roughly half the employees getting raises are not supervisors, according to figures provided by the district. In addition to the nearly 200 principals and academic program directors, raises go to about 330 central office administrators and other employees not represented by unions. Of the latter category, about 255 are not supervisors.
-- Bethany Barnes