All Jackson County Teachers, Staff Getting Raises In School Budget

Jackson County teachers and staff are getting raises after the school system’s budget was approved by board members on Thursday night.

Teachers will be getting a $1,200 raise, with staff receiving a 3 percent raise. Director of Schools Kristy Brown said this is the largest raise during her 17 years in the school system.

“That’s exciting for them and certainly well deserved,” Brown said. “We used every bit of funding that came from the state increase in our BEP, to fund those raises.”

Brown said she wishes that the system and board of education could provide more for teachers and staff, saying it is not nearly as much money as they deserve. She said that when funds are available to put towards teachers and staff, the system wants to give everything it can.

“For example, our summer school money was $1,000 a week, the state said that’s the lowest we could play them,” Brown said. “But when we got down to it, and we had some money left we were able to pay every teacher that worked in the summer $1,100 a week. So instead of $200 a day, it’s $220. Everything that was available to do that with, we did give it to the teachers.”

The school system’s budget will now head to the Jackson County commission, which is holding a special called meeting for passing its budget on August 9. The Jackson County Board of Education approved a $17 million operating budget for the 2021-2022 school year.