Monroe County school officials wanted big pay hike. Why legislators disapproved.
The Monroe County School Board of Education’s plan to raise its pay by 700% failed to advance after falling short of the support required from the county’s legislative delegation.
House Bill 825 proposed to boost the board members’ compensation from $75 per meeting to a flat rate of $600 per month, attempting to align Forsyth school officials’ salaries with the pay rate of board members in neighboring districts. But local lawmakers disagreed on the measure.
State Reps. Clint Crowe (R — Jackson), Tangie Herring (D — Macon) and Dale Washburn (R—Macon) make up the Monroe County delegation. Under local legislative rules, a majority of the three-member delegation must support a bill before it can move forward.
Crowe said he opposed the measure for several reasons, including the amount and timing of the pay hike, as well as the board’s decision to opt out of a floating homestead exemption that aimed to limit property tax assessment increases for homeowners with homestead exemptions.
“I had concerns about the amount because they voted to opt out of the property owner tax relief legislation and then they raised concerns about what that would do to their revenues if they remained in that and provided that homestead relief — all in the same meeting,” Crowe said.
“To opt out and then vote for a raise that would add over $41,000 in salaries to their budget every year, well, I thought that was incongruent. I wondered how could you be concerned about revenues and then do this,” Crowe added, noting that he honestly didn’t know how to justify or sell the proposal to his voters.
Crowe said another concern he had was that the board’s pay boost passed 4-3. The local delegation prefers for local governing boards to reach a unanimous agreement on resolutions.
Washburn, the sole sponsor of the bill, felt differently.
“The pay raise did not seem unreasonable to me, so I sponsored the bill to do that,” Washburn said. “I wasn’t particularly happy that (the board) had opted out, but I just didn’t tie those two things together because the law allowed them to do that.”
Both Washburn and Crowe said Herring initially co-sponsored the bill but later withdrew her support, preventing its passage.
The bill was sent back to the Intragovernmental Coordination Committee on April 2, and did not receive passage in the House or Senate, according to the bill’s online status.
The proposed pay raise never came up for a vote, Crowe and Washburn said.
Herring did not respond to several media requests from The Telegraph on why she removed her name from the bill.
The Telegraph reached out to Monroe County Schools to find out what the board’s next steps are regarding the legislation. The district’s communications director, Kari Buckindail, said school officials will not be able to conduct an interview on the topic.
MCSD Superintendent Jim Finch previously said that $75 per meeting is the lowest pay of school districts in the Middle Georgia area.
Crowe said that although the board is probably underpaid and due for a raise, he’s open to suggesting a more gradual, staggered pay increase to align with the board’s revenue concerns.
“I do have great respect for the board,” Crowe said. “Monroe County Schools is an exceptional school system. I wasn’t trying to penalize them because they opted out of 581, and I have nothing derogatory to say about them. I just don’t feel like the time is right to do that big of an increase and that we need to have some discussions about it before I’d be comfortable signing off on it.”