MSCS board approves SRO pay raise, severance for laid off workers and STEM school money

Security officers for Memphis-Shelby County Schools will get the raises promised to them by Superintendent Marie Feagins in a letter in August. The total expenditure of $639,717 will have no impact on the budget as the district is repurposing funds from 11 vacant safety and security monitor positions.

The approval came during the business meeting of the MSCS board Tuesday. Commissioners had little to say about the approval.

The five-step, five-year payment structure was detailed in an Aug. 12 letter from Feagins to safety and security officers and sergeants, which was obtained by The Commercial Appeal. The officers were posed to stage a one-day strike on Aug. 16, by using a mental health day and calling out of work.

The strike was never held, as a walkout of officers during a meeting with Feagins happened and spurred action on setting the raises for employees.

Officers will start at $25 an hour and by the final fifth step will be making $30 an hour, with sergeants starting at $34 an hour and finishing the fifth step at $38 an hour. The security staffers will be given back pay from July 1 as the raises will be retroactive.

More: MSCS superintendent to give security officers raises after meeting walkout, plan to skip work

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Once staff reaches the pay ceiling on the fifth step, they will receive a $1,000 bonus each year after that. Raises will start July 1 each year, which marks the start of the fiscal year for the district and its funder the Shelby County Government.

Board to pay for 'displaced employees'

Back in June, Feagins announced that over 1,100 jobs would be cut, but attempts to relocate employees within the district would be made. The move ignited a steep divide between the superintendent and impacted employees in the district.

Out of the 1,100 jobs cut, over 400 of them were vacant.

Employees were given the opportunity to apply to other jobs within the district, and many of them took the district up on the offer even if that meant a pay cut. The move from Feagins was to divert resources back into the classrooms which in turn meant many central office staffers being relocated.

Of the near 700 jobs that were cut in Feagins' proposal that were staffed at the time, around 400 alternate offers were given as of late June .

Recently, there were about 170 people who are not employed by the district any longer and the board approved a an expenditure to extend payroll benefits through Aug. 31.

The official fiscal expenditure was not available upon publication and it was not uploaded to the MSCS board documents site.

Commissioner Stephanie Love questioned Feagins about the money from the positions she "cut," asking repeatedly for Feagins to show her where the money went within the budget. Feagins told Love repeatedly that would not be possible as she did not have a line by line breakdown of the budget on hand.

Love was able to get out that the overall savings from the positions Feagins cut was $68 million which was reallocated to various aspects of the budget.

The Shelby County Commission will still have to approve the amended budget.

Money for Whitehaven STEM School officially approved

The saga of the missing funding for the Whitehaven STEM School has officially come to a close as the school board approved a $1,041,243 expenditure of the fund balance. The expenditure would cover the added cost of a storm shelter and additional construction costs.

The battle for the missing funds started at an Aug. 7 committee meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr, who represents Whitehaven, told commissioners the promised funding from MSCS had not come through and the construction of the building had not yet began.

Chairwoman Miska Clay Bibbs even said during the committee meeting that the "money is at South Hollywood," in reference to the MSCS district office, located at 160 S. Hollywood St.

More: MSCS is cutting 1.1K jobs. Here's how the district got here, and why it happened

More: Memphis-Shelby County Schools board OKs funding for Whitehaven High School STEM building

Shelby County initially thought they were going to have to front the money for the project if the school board did not act. During a special called meeting Aug. 22, the board approved a $2.3 million expenditure to cover the additional construction costs and storm shelter costs as well as the $1.3 million of Shelby County capital funds already agreed upon.

If the county would have gone through with allocating an additional $2.3 million for the project, they would have also had to match that amount to the other municipal schools based on average daily attendance allocations. The cost to the county would have ballooned the expenditure to almost $3 million, on top of the already allocated $1.9 million.

The project also has a massive pocket of private donor support, making up the majority of the $9 million cost.

Former Commercial Appeal reporter John Klyce contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: MSCS board approves SRO pay raise, severance for laid off workers and STEM school money