A proposed raise for teachers and staff was a point of contention at the Hamilton County Board of Education's Thursday work session.
In the district's proposed $385 million budget, district officials have allocated about $5.6 million to give teachers and district employees a 2 percent raise in addition to the mandated annual step increase.
Rhonda Thurman speaks during a Hamilton County school board meeting on March, 22, 2018."Our teachers are key. When we start talking about who is with the child every single day, it's the teachers," said Superintendent Bryan Johnson.
However, some board members - specifically Rhonda Thurman of District 1, voiced discontent and argued there was better use of the district's more than $12 million it has to allocate in a number of areas this year.
"Teachers are important ... but so is everybody else. ... Everybody deserves a piece of the pie," she said.
Thurman proposed using funds to work on capital maintenance projects or in block grants given to schools to cut back on school fees that burden families, something for which District 3's Joe Smith also has advocated.
"We play loose and fast with some numbers here ... we need to take some of this extra money and put it in block grants and give it to the schools," Thurman said.
Last year, Hamilton County's teachers received a raise as well as a bonus around Christmas time, according to Christie Jordan, assistant superintendent of finance and purchasing.
The district is banking on a local sales tax increase and property tax growth, as well as additional basic education program funding, to account for its projected growth. Johnson also brought in a base budget that is about $1 million less than last year's, thanks to savings from the retirement incentive approved by the board in February and a shuffling of positions district-wide.
"I think it's important for the community to understand that when we're giving them a 2 percent raise and their .5 percent step increase ... that's a pretty good raise," Smith said. "I want the public to understand that we are taking care of our teachers."
Recruitment and retention of teachers, especially as graduation rates from teacher preparation programs decline across the state - and the nation - is a priority, district leaders said.
The average salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree in Hamilton County is about $38,628 - compared to more than $44,000 in Nashville and more than $40,000 in Bradley County and Cleveland City Schools.
"Everybody was nervous about this retirement incentive, but I'm nervous about all the teachers and principals in my district who are getting up out of here and how we're going to fill those positions," said Karitsa Mosley Jones, the District 5 representative.
In this July 2017 staff file photo, Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson, left, and board members Steve Highlander, center, and Karista Mosely Jones take part in a Hamilton County Board of Education meeting.Board chairman Steve Highlander also expressed some concern about class-size ratios and how the district is looking at the ratios mandated by the state, which Johnson and his staff have acknowledged they are analyzing.
The proposed budget includes adding positions - namely art teachers, counselors, English as a Second Language teachers and school resources officers - to a tune of around $1.5 million.
Other budget priorities include safety enhancements, adding community school coordinator positions, and increasing technology resources - including the rollout of technology devices to every student in the district's 11 middle schools.
The board has another budget work session before next week's regular board meeting at 4 p.m. on Thursday and a workshop scheduled with the Hamilton County Commission at 9 a.m. on May 8.
The board will need to vote on Johnson's proposed budget before it is presented to the county.
Contact staff writer Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757- 6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.