POPLAR RIDGE - Substitutes and full-time faculty and staff at the Southern Cayuga Central School District received a pay raise on Tuesday.

The Board of Education, in a 5-2 vote, voted in favor of increasing the pay rates and starting salaries 3.6 percent for the upcoming academic year during the board's reorganizational meeting. A regular board meeting followed the adjournment of the reorganizational meeting. The combined meetings ran more than two and a half hours.

Debate ensued while discussing pay raises for

substitute registered nurses. The pay rate proposal included an approximate 50 percent pay raise, going from $12.72 per hour during the 2006-07 school year to $25.50 per hour.

Full-time registered nurses earned $13.91 in the 2006-07 school year. The pay raise proposal raised the wage to $14.32.

It seems that we are paying our substitute nurses better than our full time nurses, said Michelle Dean, vice president of the board.

Superintendent Mary Kay Worth cited difficulty in hiring substitute registered nurses as the reason for the wage increase.

“During the year, late in the year, I got a request from our nurses to please advertise for registered nurses and to please provide a pay raise to encourage registered nurses,” to work at Southern Cayuga, she said.

After meeting with the school's chief officers, Worth believed the solution to the issue was raising the hourly wage to entice nurses to work at the district, she said.

The Board of Cooperative Educational Services had previously raised their hourly wage for substitute registered nurses to $25.50 for the same reason. The Southern Cayuga School District pay rate was based upon the BOCES figure, Worth said.

After much deliberation, the board ultimately voted on an amended proposal which carried a 3.6 percent raise for substitute nurses, going from the 2006-07 figure to $13.18 on a provisionary basis. Board members Jim Wilcox and Leonard Jordan were in opposition to the measure.

The issue was discussed further in an executive session.

Other contested pay rate increases included the pay rate for substitute bus drivers, earning $16.52 per hour compared to last year's $15.95 per hour. A full-time bus driver under the pay increase would earn $12.87.

In other news

€ Ted Rejman was appointed as board president. This is his third term.

€ Michelle Dean was appointed as board vice president. This is her second term.

€ Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn gave a gift to the Southern Cayuga Central School District in the amount of $5,300. Superintendent Worth said the money would not be going into the general fund; rather, it will be used as funds for music and art program enhancements.

€ The next school board meeting will be held on July 31, 2007 at 6 p.m. in the planetarium classroom.