The Grayson County Board of Education, following a tense two-month period of back-and-forth between teachers and the board, voted on Thursday to approve an additional two-percent raise for school district employees.
The board awarded teachers a three-percent raise on May 9, but a coalition of educators, led by Grayson County High School social studies teacher Adam Spinks, the district’s Kentucky Education Association’s representative, quite emphatically requested a 10-percent raise over a two-year period.
The two-percent raise granted on Thursday at a special called school board meeting brings the total raise for teachers to five-percent, and delivers the educators halfway to their stated goal.
“… I know we threw a major curveball at you a couple of months ago,” Spinks said while addressing the board. “It started off a little bit bumpy, but overall, I think this has been a very positive, productive; I feel like everybody has kind of … recalibrated why we’re here (and) what we want to see out of the school district (and) what we want to be able to do for our kids.
“So, I want to thank you for stepping up. I know it wasn’t easy to make this happen, but we did it … Now this is kinda behind us and we can see what else we can to do make this the best possible experience for our kids.
“I can’t wait to see where we go next. How can we work together to push forward what’s going on in the classroom? How can we make sure we’re taking care of our people in all job categories? And it looks like we’re doing that, and we’re going to keep on going in the right direction … Hopefully this bump in the road; it’ll be a long time before we have another one … Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Mr. (Superintendent Doug) Robinson, thank you Ms. (Finance Officer Erin) Embry. Thanks to all of you for really stepping up.”
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
