BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Sullivan County Commissioner Herschel Glover wants the School Board to give the school system’s staff a 5% raise.
Glover read a statement during the Sullivan County Commission meeting on August 11, in which he presented an amendment to the Sullivan County Schools budget that would encourage them to raise the current 1% salary increase to a 5% raise. But the encouragement offered by Glover did not come with any promises of additional school funding from the county.
"I'm asking this body to approve and to encourage an increase in funding by the board of education for the support staff by $700,000 to provide the extra four (percentage points) for a 5% raise," Glover said. "The reason I am asking for this, the 1% raise was given to the support staff that's the workers that's plumbers, electricians, masons, they're the first ones in the school and the last ones to leave, and I think we need to recommend to the school department for them to give those employees that extra 4%."
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Discussions over the statement presented by Commissioner Glover were postponed and could take place during the Sullivan County Commissions' next meeting Thursday, August 18.
Evelyn Rafalowski, the Sullivan County director of schools, was surprised that the issue was brought up at the meeting without prior notice or conversation with the School Board.
"We had no prior knowledge that that was going to be discussed," Rafalowski said. "I think it's very important for departments within Sullivan County to work together, and certainly, I think it would have been good for that conversation to have happened with our Board of Education prior to that evening."
Email: jmancera@bristolnews.com