Kentucky School Advocate
October 2024
Staff report
When the Kentucky General Assembly passed the biennial budget in April, lawmakers included a provision in the bill that required the Kentucky Department of Education to survey districts about whether their school boards provided raises for district employees this year.
The two-year budget increased the SEEK base funding 3% and 6%, respectively. That amounted to $4,326 per student in FY25 and $4,586 in FY26. Transportation was funded at 90% the first year and 100% in the second year of the budget.
After passing the budget, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said he believed the SEEK increases and transportation funding would allow boards to “give substantial raises over the biennium.”
However, many superintendents said the increases would likely only allow for small raises for district staff. As districts prepared their budgets for the coming year, many did recommend boards approve raises for staff. As required in the bill, KDE surveyed districts about employee compensation and reported the results to the Legislative Research Commission.
“(Legislators) want to see some metrics or feedback on what districts did,” Matt Ross, KDE Associate Commissioner, explained during KDE’s September Superintendents Webcast.
Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher said that 169 of the 171 districts submitted compensation information to KDE.
“When we send out information to state legislators, it looks great if we have 100% – all 171 to answer. So thank you to the 169 that completed this, but again we really need 100%, especially on these reports because there are so many decisions that are made on these,” he said.
The results showed that most districts, 96% of those who responded, provided some sort of raise, either a percentage raise, a flat raise or combination of those. Of the districts that gave raises, 63% provided a universal increase while 10% gave raises by job classification and 27% did a combination of a universal raise and raises by job classification.
The survey showed that the average percent increase for certified staff was 4.14% and the average dollar increase was $2,805. The average percent raise for classified staff was 3.63% and the average dollar increase was $1,322.