Evergreen recommends new pay structure for certified SCCPSS staff; district hears $12.8M salary estimate for phase 2

Savannah-Chatham County Public School System finance committee members on April 16 heard a presentation from Evergreen Solutions proposing a revised classification and compensation plan for certified staff that Evergreen said would narrow inequities, align pay with market peers and add role-based pay additives. Evergreen estimated the salary-only cost of implementing phase 2 (certified staff) at roughly $12.8 million and the combined proposed cost for both phases at about $18.18 million; Evergreen noted those figures do not include fringe benefit markups.

The recommendation came during a budget-development discussion led in part by Mister Ramon Ray, a district staff member, who reviewed the history of frozen step increases and local supplement reductions that he said left teacher pay behind peer districts. "State law says that every teacher has to receive a step increase," Ray told the committee while explaining why the district offset step increases with cuts to the local supplement in FY 2010.

Ally Crumpler, senior consultant with Evergreen Solutions, presented the firm’s phase‑2 findings and recommendations for certified employees and said the study combined an internal review (job assessments and an employee outreach survey) with an external market analysis across 22 peer districts. "Phase 2 was regarding your certified…