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At the April 13, 2021 meeting of the Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees, the board passed a 2020–2021 employee step increase for all eligible permanent employees and a related amendment to the 2020–2021 general fund budget.
The board heard Chief Operations Officer Jeff Salters’ recommendation to award all eligible permanent employees a step increase for this current year, the 2020–2021 year. After legislators passed a joint resolution, H.3609, to restore teacher step increases.
Salters pointed out that the final Act (Act 3) requires districts to provide the step to teachers if they were fulfilling their 2020–2021 contractual requirements as of March 1, 2021. The district, however, recommended providing a step increase for all permanent employees who met the same criteria required for teachers. All employees have worked hard and shown continued flexibility during this unprecedented time.
To some degree, the approximate cost to the district (approximately $3.6 million) will be offset by the state’s money (approximately $1.6 million) to cover the state portion of the teacher step increases. Lexington District One plans to fund the district’s net cost of $2 million with $1.7 million left from the 2019–2020 fiscal year surplus after giving employees the one-time payment approved by the board on Dec. 1, 2020. District leaders are confident there will be a sufficient 2020–2021 fiscal year surplus to cover the remaining $0.3 million.
Accordingly, the board voted to amend the 2020–2021 general fund budget to provide the 2020–2021 employee step increase for all eligible permanent employees.
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