School support staff receives pay increase

Hourly pay rates for Summerland Public School classified staff will increase 4% beginning this fall.

Superintendent Kyle Finke suggested the increase during the board of education’s May 14 meeting.

He also recommended increasing bus wages for any regular bus route more than 40 miles or activity pay to $15 per hour.

“Looking at what we have for classified staff, I think it’s a fair increase for them. It gets everyone over the minimum wage shift to $13.50 on Jan. 1,” the superintendent said.

Negotiations committee member Nate Schwager said a pay array from area schools was used for the activity route.

“We were pretty far under. Hopefully with this, we’ll get up where we need to be,” he said.

Finke noted schools from the new conference were also considered.

“It’ll have more of a positive impact on the budget,” Finke said.