Directors Laura Simkin, Savion Castro, Chris Gomez-Schmidt, Nichelle Nichols, Nikki Vander Mullen, and President and CEO Ari Mulldrow voted in favor of a $2-an-hour wage increase, but Executive Vice President Maia Pearson voted against the price increase.

Pearson said he supports a pay hike for staff, but voted against it because there is still no clear path to achieving the $5 pay increase demanded by staff and supporters.

“Two dollars is unacceptable for our staff, SEAs, and educators. There is only one reason I am voting for this as there is a path to increase that will be discussed on September 19th.”

The $2 hourly wage increase for all hourly teaching assistants would use up the $1.4 million remaining in the 2022-23 budget, which the Board plans to increase in June. The increase will increase the starting salary for educational assistants from $16.44 an hour to $18.44 an hour.

The district administration and school board will continue discussions with the goal of achieving the staff’s requested $5 an hour increase at a special meeting on September 19.

Nichols voted in favor of a $2 price increase, but only if the district administration met with the board in September to continue discussions.

Castro pointed to a structural deficit of about $7 million that could be incurred in future budgets if the district increased hourly wages for all staff by $5.

“I think we’re going to have a conversation with the community about how we want to fund education here over the next few years,” he said.

Prior to the vote, during the public comment portion of the conference, Kathy Lezak, a special education assistant (SEA) who has worked for the district for 20 years and earns less than $20 an hour, offered the board and district administrators the funds. appealed for procurement. The SEA’s hourly rate is $5 an hour, as requested at the start of wage negotiations in May.

“I’m not going to ask respectfully anymore. Please,” she said. “The education, safety, mental health and well-being of our students are our continuing priorities. Not only does it affect well-being, it also affects students.”

She said staff morale was at “an all-time low” and called on the school district to stop saying thank you to staff and instead show it with a $5 hourly wage increase. rice field.

Many school district officials and parents also spoke in favor of SEA’s $5 increase during the public comment portion of the meeting. Their special needs students were fed up with the backlash from the school district.

“(SEA) directly impacts so many students, yet they are not heard in enough places. It shows what you value to our students, teachers, and our community,” she told the board and administration.

District officials cited revenue limits in the state’s biennial budget as the primary reason they could not hire more staff to support students with special needs or to pay higher wages to current staff. We repeatedly point out that the is increasing by 0%.

“We have been given a very regressive budget by the state, but we are working and this board is working very hard. I’m happy to be here in , and to make sure we see the way forward,” Jenkins said again at Monday’s meeting.

Legislative Republicans have repeatedly defended the lack of increases by noting that schools receive $2.3 billion in federal COVID relief aid, known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Assistance, or ESSER Fund. However, school officials say using the ESSER dollars for ongoing expenses such as hiring staff and raising wages means school districts will have less money to spend on temporary funding to mitigate pandemic-related learning losses. A cliff is likely, Madison expects ESSER funding to total about $66.7 million.

Monday’s vote came a month after the board approved a 3% base wage increase for all staff for the upcoming school year. This is two-thirds of what MTI wanted him to be a teacher at the start of negotiations.