Penn-Harris-Madison officials approve 2-percent raises for administrators, other employees

Nov. 29--MISHAWAKA -- Administrators, bus drivers, custodians and most other employee groups at Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. will get 2 percent pay raises under contracts unanimously approved Monday by trustees.

The one-year employee contracts, which include increased health insurance premiums, were approved during the board's meeting at Schmucker Middle School.

The approval of raises comes after the board already recently approved a $1,000 pay raise for all of the corporation's teachers -- an average of about 2 percent.

Like the pay raise for teachers, the one approved for the corporation's 52 administrators will take effect for this school year, retroactive to July 1. For all other employee groups, raises will take effect Jan. 1, 2017.

Most groups will receive 2 percent raises, but there are exceptions. Food service employees will receive an average raise of 3 percent, and Kids Club employees will get a 3 percent raise.

Employee contracts include increases in premiums and deductibles for health insurance plans, said Michael Lureman, the corporation's human resources director. No changes were made in the past four years to health insurance plans, he said. Employee raises, meanwhile, were made possible by an increase in state aid for this school year.

Under the new contracts, administrators with the highest salaries are Superintendent Jerry Thacker ($184,621), Associate Superintendent Denise Seger ($135,088), Assistant Superintendent Kay Antonelli ($129,842) and Penn High School Principal Steven Hope ($119,022).

"Though the bargaining process, we gave them as much as we could," Thacker said of the raises after the meeting. "If I could wave a magic wand, we would have given considerably more."

The pay raises are in keeping with those approved for employees at South Bend Community School Corp. Early this year, the corporation's board approved 2 percent raises for two consecutive years for all employees, said Sue Coney, a spokeswoman for the corporation.

School City of Mishawaka's board, meanwhile, recently approved an annual pay raise of nearly 3 percent for all teachers. And at its December meeting, the board will consider approving raises for administrators and other employee groups, said Dean Speicher, the corporation's superintendent. It hasn't yet been decided, however, whether proposed raises will be similar to what teachers have received.

"I would hope so," Speicher said. "We try to treat all of our employees fairly."

In other business, P-H-M trustees approved a $290,000 contract to purchase 561 laptops for all elementary, middle and high school teachers. The laptops will replace ones bought before the start of the 2011-12 school year, which will be used by schools for other purposes.

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