Proposed FY '25 Oak Ridge Schools budget to be presented Monday

The proposed Oak Ridge Schools budget for the coming year will be presented at a special called Board of Education meeting set for 5 p.m. May 6 in the School Administration Building, New York Avenue.

Will Oak Ridge educators get their requested 4% pay raise in Fiscal Year 2025?

The public meeting, which Oak Ridge City Council members have been invited to attend, begins several weeks of public budget-making work by the school board. Other meetings set for the coming weeks in the School Administration Building are:

• 5 p.m. May 13, a special called school board meeting for a line-by-line review of the budget, and first reading of the proposed budget;
• 5 p.m. May 20, the school board's monthly meeting at which the second reading and approval of the proposed budget are expected.

Other meetings could be added by the school board while budget deliberations are underway.

A key issue in the budget is always educators' pay and benefits. The Oak Ridge Education Association has already asked for a 4% pay raise , along with step raises on the school system's salary schedule based on years of service and educational degrees. School administrators asked for a 2.5% to 3% increase.

The OREA has also asked for a greater contribution by the school system to medical insurance and to increase paid bereavement by three days for a maximum of five days.

State leaders have set a goal to make the starting teacher salary $50,000 a year by 2026, the USA TODAY Network-Tennessee reported . But Oak Ridge Schools' beginning teachers pay made that goal this school year. Teachers and administrators got 4% pay raises this year, but schools Finance Director Jenifer Van Dyke told The Oak Ridger that many teachers got more because of taking "steps" on the teacher salary schedule, as well as updates to that schedule.

Another 4% raise would increase beginning teachers' pay to $52,000, she said earlier in the emailed response to The Oak Ridger's questions.

The Oak Ridge school system employs more than 650 people. In a presentation on budget concepts during the April school board meeting, the finance director stated that salaries and benefits amount to 80% of the current budget total.

"Step" increases on the salary schedule and the 4% pay raise would cost approximately $2.7 million in the upcoming budget, her information showed.

Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers told the League of Women Voters last month that because Oak Ridge Schools pays educators more than some other school systems in the state, the school system hasn't faced as many problems in hiring as some other schools. Even so, he said, they now aren't getting as many eligible applicants as they once did.

He said many educators chose to retire during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith covers Oak Ridge area news. Email her at dsmith@oakridger.com and follow her on Twitter@ridgernewsed. Correspondent Carolyn Krause contributed to this story.

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This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Proposed FY '25 Oak Ridge Schools budget to be presented Monday