The Callaway Board of Education had a light agenda for their Oct. 9 meeting, with one of the action items being the consideration of a wage increase for returning hourly employees. “We are just trying to figure out how to take care of our folks,” explained Superintendent Bryon Hanson. The wages being discussed impact seven employees of the district. Hanson said that after crunching the numbers the district would be looking at an additional increase of about $10,000.

“I feel much better about where our special education reimbursements will be than I did when we looked at this in the spring. That was still quite a bit up in the air at that time,” said Hanson.

Hanson also shared that the personnel committee had asked him to put together a different pay structure, which he said he plans to present next spring. “We are going to look to delineate our pay structure regarding our hourly para work depending on the difficulty and responsibility of the job,” he explained. “I looked at a couple other school districts that have something like this in place. We will basically be doing it in three tiers; your traditional educational support para that would be at a base pay; an enhanced support para that would be at a wage that would be a little bit increased; and then a medical support para with a wage increased beyond that.”

Hanson said the committee also discussed creating a salary schedule for hourly employees similar to the one the teachers currently have. “We would delineate out those responsibilities and pay accordingly, and then put something in place that would better support our employees based on longevity.”

The board approved a wage increase of four percent to those seven hourly employees as presented.

An annual review of policies was also discussed, and one in particular generated discussion. That policy pertains to instances when there is a tie vote among the board. As you may recall, the school board has six members and this year’s election of officers required numerous ballot castings due to ties. Hanson suggested the board amend the policy to include a clause for dealing with a tiebreaker. That was the only policy change in the 200 series that was recommended.

With Hanson submitting his resignation at last month’s meeting, the board reviewed options for a search firm to assist with finding a replacement for the 2024-25 school year. After some discussion, the board approved NASB to coordinate the search for a superintendent.

In administrator reports, Principal Heath Birkel noted that 19 kids have registered to participate in the Discovery Zone after-school program. Birkel also announced that the school had two students selected for the Believers & Achievers program - Josie Reiff and Maggie Birkel.

The next meeting of the Callaway Board of Education is set for Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.