The Knox Community School Corporation is overhauling the handbook for classified staff. The updated handbooks were approved by the school board Tuesday, at the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart.
As part of the changes, classified staff will get a revised pay structure. “We used to have some steps or ladders involved, and we really weren’t honoring those throughout the years,” Reichhart explained. “And so what we will do in the future is we’ll bring people in based upon their experience in the starting wage that we have, and then as we give percentage increases, any employee that has a favorable evaluation will be able to get that percentage increase.”
Meanwhile, the number of bereavement days will be cut in half, from 10 to five. But Reichhart stresses that employees will be able to ask him for more time, if necessary. “The number of bereavement days, compared to other school districts, is somewhat excessive,” he said. “And I just feel like if those days are needed, we will grant those through coming to me for approval, but if not, I think five days is probably a good number.” Reichhart said he plans to make a similar change for teachers, when their new contract is negotiated.
At the same time, bus drivers will see an increase in the number of sick days from two to five per year. “All of our other employee groups that work 210 days or less are at five,” Reichhart explained, “and so to get consistency, I felt that we needed to bump them up from two to five.” Reichhart said he increased the pay rate for substitute bus drivers, since the corporation has been having trouble attracting them.
Overall, he told board members that he felt the overhaul of the classified staff handbook was necessary, and that the new version should be easier to understand. He noted that the changes brought the handbook down from 55 pages to 14 pages with a chart.
