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Council hears plan to change Vigo County Homes for Children staffing schedule and pay classifications
Summary
Vigo County Homes for Children requested an amendment to a salary ordinance to replace 48-hour live-in shifts with rotating 12-hour shifts, combine overnight and direct-care classifications, and use existing budgeted funds to staff a reopened group home.
Vigo County councilors on April 1 heard a request from Vigo County Homes for Children staff to amend the agency's salary ordinance so that direct-care staff would work rotating 12-hour shifts instead of 48-hour live-in shifts.
Kara Gurevich, treatment and licensing director for Vigo County Homes for Children, said the change would combine the overnight position with the youth care specialist classification so the roles share the same pay grade and staffing model. She said the shift to 12-hour rotations would “allow us to be able to have a wider variety of children to take care of” and make it easier to recruit and retain staff.
Council members pressed for budgetary context. One councilor asked whether the change required additional appropriation; Gurevich said money was already budgeted and the item was a reclassification using existing funds. Council members also requested input from human resources: a previous direction had called for HR review by Kara Wright, and several councilors noted they expected HR to weigh in on pay-grade changes.
Council members discussed numbers of residents and staffing. Gurevich said the home currently has four residents and that the program had brought in $135,025 in per-diem revenue since reopening on Feb. 24. She said the operating budget set the number of full-time direct-care positions at seven, including three night guard positions and four youth care specialists, and that the agency intended to staff within the existing budget for now and not request new hires unless a second house opens.
A councilor reiterated a concern raised by previous boards: repeated pay-grade changes can shift a workforce midpoint and complicate future efforts to meet prior compensation commitments. The council asked for a fiscal review to ensure the reclassification would not produce unanticipated budget increases in future budget cycles.
No formal vote to adopt the salary ordinance amendment was recorded at the April 1 meeting. Councilors asked staff to supply budget details and HR analysis before any final action.
