CLEVELAND, Tenn. – City school system employees are overdue for a raise, Cleveland Board of Education members told the Cleveland City Council on Tuesday.
Board members also said now is the time to find a site for another elementary school. The school board and the council met over lunch to discuss priority needs.
During Rick Denning’s tenure as schools director, the system has been catching up on facility needs, he said, but that has come at the expense of salaries.
“We are asking for a 3 percent raise next year,” Denning told city officials. “Our people have not had a raise, or bonuses, in two years.”
Although the city system once was concerned about competition for teachers from nearby Georgia school systems, now it is losing teachers and other personnel to neighboring school systems, including Bradley County, he said.