During last Thursday’s bi-weekly Trigg County School Board meeting, the district’s pay schedule and a potential raise for school nurses came into considerable question — before being tabled in order to seek more data from surrounding counties.
At the crux of the discussion comes the amount of training required to be employed within this district, in comparison to what is believed to be due compensation.
In 2019, Trigg County officials moved to have the schools, once again, take over nursing operations from the local health department — while opting to require employed nurses to either already have, or obtain within five years, a BSN (Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing).
While that could bring about qualified applicants for the current and future nursing station of the schools, concerns about the pay rate — which spans from $10.61/hour to $22.38/hour minus potential board-approved benefits — linger.
Director of Personnel and Student Services James Mangels, along with Finance Officer Holly Greene and Superintendent Bill Thorpe, noted the numbers don’t particularly fit.
As it stands, Trigg County’s school nurses work eight hours with no hour-long paperwork break, maintain a 187-day annual work calendar, don’t bill for Medicaid and are frequently subject to intensive training.
Yes, it’s part of the job. But when the role of a nurse is financially equitable to the district’s current bus driver rates, as Christy Oliphant pointed out, then something could be amiss.
Oliphant, a district nurse for primary and intermediate, said as much during Thursday’s discussion.
Board members Clara Beth Hyde and Charlene Sheehan brought about the most questions surrounding the potential for pay increases, asking for information on surrounding district standards and price points, which led to the tabling.
Questions aside, both Hyde and Sheehan said that local nurses deserve thanks — and perhaps some due compensation — but that it was worth researching and discussion before changing the budget, which will soon be established.
Oliphant agreed.
It seems the issue will be addressed once more data points are provided to the Trigg County School Board.
