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Classified staff, special‑education aides and teachers urge higher pay as vacancies bite
Summary
Multiple classified employees, instructional assistants and teachers addressed the board during public comment to describe vacancy pressures, low starting wages and safety concerns in MSD classrooms.
A series of public commenters at the March 18 meeting urged the Jefferson County Board of Education to raise classified staff pay and address persistent vacancies, particularly for instructional assistants in MSD (moderate and severe disabilities) classrooms.
Speakers and main points: Ashley Holmquist, an ECE instructional assistant at Phoenix School of Discovery, described a shortage of classified staff and low starting pay. She said "the starting hourly rate for classified staff is less than $15 an hour," noted rising local costs and asked the district to increase the starting rate to at least $20 an hour. Holmquist added that some long‑term employees work multiple jobs to make ends meet and gave the example of a coworker who had worked 36 years and made roughly $31,000 last year.
Sherry Cox, also an ECE instructional assistant, described the workload and noted temporary pandemic raises that were not sustained. She said many classified staff must take second jobs and that the district’s step pay structure and limited raises make retention difficult.
Teachers and school staff also testified about classroom impacts. Jason Gregory, an MSD teacher, said approximately 16 MSD classrooms lacked appropriate staffing at the time of his remarks and cited district outsourcing that can pay external hires more than long‑time district aides earn. Karen Terreliger and Mary Denison, both with MSD experience, described the range of duties instructional assistants perform—personal care, feeding, behavior supports, academic assistance—and called understaffing a safety and compliance concern.
District response and missing data: Presenters from the district told the board that special‑education staffing shortages were the most severe among job categories and said recruitment work is ongoing with local universities. Staff gave several vacancy figures during the discussion in conversational form but did not produce a single, consolidated vacancy total for all classified positions within the meeting. The public commenters requested more decisive pay action and retention incentives.
Next steps: Speakers urged board action on pay and recruitment; the board acknowledged the remarks and thanked classified staff for their service. No specific pay decision was taken during the meeting; the board did not adopt new salary schedules on March 18.
