Kent School District employees will get a 5.5 percent pay raise for the upcoming school year. The school board approved the increases at a special meeting Tuesday night.
The increases will cost the district an additional $11.6 million.
The pay increase includes a 3 percent cost-of-living increase set forth in the state budget for K-12 employees.
As a part of negotiations with the Kent Education Association in 2013, the board approved a 4.75 percent increase for teachers in 2013, a 3.6 percent pay hike in 2014 and a 2.5 percent raise for the upcoming school year.
The board decided to give the 5.5 percent increase across the board, including to employees not represented by a union.
The board unanimously approved the increases for the KEA and Kent Principals’ Association, but the vote was 3-2 in favor of the pay hike for non-represented employees.
Board president Karen DeBruler, vice president Debbie Straus and board member Agda Burchard voted for the increases, while board members Russ Hanscom and Maya Vengadasalam voted against the pay hikes.
Hanscom and Vengadasalam said they felt the increases for non-represented employees further income inequality, since many of the non-represented employees are among the district’s top paid employees.
“To give 5½ percent to the most well paid in the district while those with the lowest paying jobs struggle, I just don’t support it,” Hanscom said before the vote. “The income gap has gotten greater and greater and greater. There is a lot more wealth in fewer folks’ hands, and for me this a microcosm of that when I have an opportunity to close a huge problem in our society where the wealthy continue to get wealthier and those that are struggling continue to struggle. … It is a missed opportunity for me and it stings and it hurts.”
Vengadasalam said the money could be used in other areas in the district
“We are not paying attention to our programs and our buildings and what is missing in middle schools,” she said. “There are important issues that are not addressed.”
Straus said the across-the-board increases made the most sense.
“To single out one group would not be fair,” she said.
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