The Davis School District has reached agreement with its 2,800 classified employees regarding a major re-shuf-fling of salaries and job descriptions.
The classified employees, including custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, data technicians - basically all district employees except teachers - will each get a 4.48 percent cost-of-living wage increase over last year.Last year, district officials undertook a major study of all classified positions, including a market analysis study and an evaluation of wages. As a result of the yearlong effort, four different classified salary schedules were compressed into one and specific job descriptions were created for each of the 182 different positions.
On top of the cost-of-living increase, wages were increased an average 2.54 percent as a result of the study. Though the amount of increase varied, all employees got a raise, said Assistant Superintendent Lynn Trenbeath.
The new salary schedule includes 13 lanes (each lane representing a particular job classification) and 13 steps in each lane (each step representing years on the job), with a 3.5 percent increase between each step.
The new schedule specifies, for example, that a first-year cook will receive $5.79 per hour, a new bus driver $7.91 per hour and a high school head custodian $11.35 per hour. The amount of health insurance premiums paid by the district will vary from 55 percent to 95 percent, depending on the number of hours worked.
Only about 700 employees are members of the Davis Classified Employees Association, but even so the association is the recognized bargaining agent for the employees. Both Trenbeath and Renate Allen, president of the association, said negotiations went smoothly.