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District also recognizes educators 

The Coffee County Schools Board of Education unanimously approved two measures related to employee compensation during its regular meeting Monday April 8.

The first of these involved the pay scale for the district’s Registered Nurses.

“Nurses are paid on the teacher pay scale, you have to be certified to be a nurse therefore you are on the teacher pay scale,” Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson said during the meeting.

Lawson said historically, the practice in Coffee County has been to give school nurses up to five years of work experience when they accept a job with the district.

“So if you are a nurse with five years’ experience or a nurse with 20 years’ experience you start on step five on the teacher pay scale,” Lawson said.

After the Board voted in May to award CTE teachers all of their work experience towards the teacher pay scale when are were hired on, it made the district’s nurses the only group in the certified pay scale with their work experience limited to five years.

Lawson said the cost to recognize district nurses for all their work experience would cost about $21,400 effective next school year.

“I will say now I recommend that nurses receive their full working experience as progress towards the teacher pay scale when hired on and if the board elects to do that we will build it into the budget to award that experience to our nurses just like we will our existing CTE teachers in the next school year,” he said. “That is where the cost comes in, is to give that missing experience to our nurses next year will cost about $21,400, that is my recommendation.”

Board member Freda K. Jones asked Lawson if he were referring to Registered Nurses with a four-year degree.

Lawson said he was specifically referencing Registered Nurses with both associate and bachelor’s degrees. The district also employees two LPNs, which are classified as part of the hourly pay scale.

“Now if you recall, one thing I did not realize, LPNs, since they are on the classified scale, this board approved last spring to give classified people their full experience,” Lawson said. “The LPNs then got their full experience on their pay scale while the RNs are not getting their full experience on the pay scale because one is on the certified pay scale and one is on the classified.”

Board members unanimously approved the measure to expand the pay scale experience for its Registered Nurses.

Board members also unanimously approved how it would utilize the more than $385,000 Coffee County Schools received through its Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding.

“The TISA outcome funding is funding the district was rewarded through the TISA funding model based upon test performance in the spring of 2023,” Lawson said.

Lawson said he prepared multiple possibilities for how the district could distribute those funds if School Board members choose to do so. The Board could also choose to place the money in it fund balance, rather than distribute it.

In one proposed option, funds would be distributed among all district employees as extra pay amounting to $450. Another option split the money between all district employees and its schools, and the last option was to distribute the money among the schools entirely.

Lawson said he recommended the option that split the money between district employees and its schools. In this option, all employees would receive $250 in extra pay in June, while each school would receive a portion based on factors such as enrollment. The Board previously voted to distribute $750 in extra pay to district employees in December 2023 with another extra $750 to be distributed in June 2024. This extra $250 through TISA would be added to that to make $1,000 in extra pay for June.

“We call it extra pay in here because a bonus is taxed at a different rate than compensation and so by calling it extra pay it is taxed at the same rate as regular pay,” Lawson said.

Board members voted unanimously to approve Lawson’s recommendation of splitting the TISA money between its employees and schools. The schools will have a period of one-year to spend the money, which must be done before the close of the 2024-2025 fiscal-year.

It was also during the meeting that the district recognized its school level Teachers of the Year and district level Teachers of the Year.

School level Teachers of the Year include:

Emily Cornelius, Katie Lowe, Kristi Rosser, Courtney Lawson, Chloe Walton, Michael Avey, Ashley Weaver, Cassie Harrell, Shannon Reynolds, Heather Tucker, Amberly Hodges, Carmen Kittinger, Emily Daniel, Amanda Costello, Holly Harris, Vanessa Reynolds, Jacob Walker, Mindy Acklen, Shelia Haley, Rebecca Koger and Ashley Nutt.

District Level Teachers of the Year include:

-Pre-K –4th – Amberly Hodges, North Coffee,

-5th-8th – Cassie Harrell, Hillsboro

-9th-12th – Ashley Nutt, CCCHS

Coffee County Schools CTE teacher Tobey Alonso was also recognized for achieving tenure with the district.