Mercer Co. Schools approves historic raise for employees

MERCER COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Employees in the Mercer County School System are getting a historic raise.

The Mercer County superintendent said this pay raise will give teachers about a 10% salary increase.

Thursday night, the Mercer County Board of Education voted unanimously to give the largest pay raise in the school district’s history. During the general session, lawmakers said schools were going to receive more money.

Some people were disappointed that lawmakers did not give targeted teacher raises, but lawmakers said they would leave that decision up to school districts. Mercer County Superintendent Jason Booher said all classified employees in his district will receive their pay step increase, plus 5% next year. This means classified employees will earn an average increase of 10%.

Booher said the move is necessary to deal with the ongoing teacher shortage in Kentucky.

“Our board, it was important to them for us to keep the very best ones in the state and in the region. We’ve got to be competitive, and we’ve got to have the best salary schedule of all the surrounding schools for us to do that,” Booher said.

Booher said teachers in Mercer County can make anywhere from $42,000 up to $70,000 a year. He said the school board voted to pay academic coaches similar salaries to that of sports head coaches. For David Sullivan, who’s been a teacher with the district for 18 years, the pay raise is great news.

“With everything going up, gas, rent, just literally everything, grocery stores, to have this kind of increase, a 5% increase, is huge,” Sullivan said.

The superintendent says the district is looking for new teachers for next year since so many are retiring this year.

To find more information about employment opportunities with Mercer County Schools, you can click this link to go to their website.

Copyright 2022 WKYT. All rights reserved.