Board discusses unified pay scale, speech-language pathologists and executive pay options

Virginia Beach ' Human Resources staff briefed the School Board on possible refinements to the division's unified and instructional pay scales, including the potential reclassification of speech-language pathologists, elimination of an entry-level unified pay grade and creation of an executive pay scale for senior leaders; board members asked for more analysis on costs, market benchmarks and impact on recruitment. Darnita Trotman, chief human resources officer, and Judith Wood, coordinator of classification and compensation, presented three policy options the board has previously raised: (1) move speech-language pathologists (SLPs) from the instructional pay scale to the unified pay scale (PL-2), (2) eliminate unified pay grade 7 and move those employees to grade 8 (which would cascade realignments in higher grades), and (3) create a separate salary structure for executive-level positions (grades 27'28). Wood noted that the state no longer licenses speech-language pathology on the teacher endorsement path and many similar clinical roles (school psychologists, social workers, occupational and physical therapists) are now on the unified pay scale. She cautioned the board that moving SLPs to the unified PL-2 grade without protections would reduce salaries for some employees: "moving the speech language pathologist to the PL 2 pay grade would result in 46 current employees facing salary reductions" at certain steps; Wood said holding impacted employees harmless would raise implementation costs and estimated the cost to implement the reclassification while protecting salaries at about $135,000. On grade 7, staff explained that prior realignments eliminated several low gradations and that earlier moves (e.g., moving grade 6 to 7) cost several million dollars to implement because higher grades required realignment. Wood said eliminating grade 7 now would create a domino effect across cafeteria, custodial and other career lattices and warned of pay compression risk: "Without this review, the compensation structure will break down, placing roles with different levels of responsibility on the same pay grade." The board discussed priorities. Several members said compensation is the highest priority (to remain competitive regionally) while also urging careful sequencing so that the lowest-paid, high-turnover roles (custodial, cafeteria, bus assistants) are addressed. Board member Melinda Rogers said explicitly she would not support any change that reduced SLP pay: "I'm not willing to tell our 46 master degreed SLPs that they have to have a pay reduction." Staff recommended next steps: commission targeted market benchmarking with the division's compensation consultant (Segal), quantify the cost and the scope of any hold-harmless provisions, and bring back formal proposals with clear budget impacts so the board can provide direction during the FY2027 budget process. Ending: The board did not vote but asked staff to return with data-driven options and cost estimates; staff said they would work with the consultant and include proposed compensation scenarios in fall budget workshops.