Fulton County schools only major metro district giving out pay… | www.myajc.com

At a time of squeezed school budgets, furloughs, and shrinking tax digests, the roughly 12,000 employees of Fulton County Schools on Tuesday were given a rare thing: a pay raise.

Of the four major county districts in metro Atlanta — Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton — Fulton, with 95,000 students, is the only one proposing to give raises next year. City of Decatur schools tentatively plan to give across-the-board pay raises next year of 1.25 percent.

The 3 percent across-the-board pay hike in Fulton will show up in 12-month employees’ paychecks in July and in most teacher’s paychecks in September. It will cost the district about $15 million. For the average teacher, it translates into $1,570, said Fulton chief financial officer Robert Morales.

Superintendent Robert Avossa said he’s talked to about 4,000 teachers this year, small groups at a time, and they always ask about compensation. For the past two years they have been given one-time bonuses, but they haven’t had raises in five years.

Jennifer Couch, principal at Hapeville Elementary School, said the pay raise, at a time when other districts are not giving raises, is a boost for morale. “I’m proud of the Fulton County school board for giving us a raise when a lot of other folks aren’t getting raises. Our employees work hard, this comes at a good time.”

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