Keystone Central School District facilities leaders told the Facilities Committee on Oct. 28 that recruiting and retaining maintenance and custodial staff has become increasingly difficult because district pay rates lag neighboring school districts.

Sam reported the district has 47 support positions under property services and regularly loses applicants to higher-paying local employers such as retail and service businesses. Comparisons to surrounding districts showed Keystone Central's maintenance pay at or below the bottom of the regional range; committee members noted the district is one of the few in the area not routinely paying at least $20 per hour for these roles.

Facilities and human-resources staff proposed pursuing a memorandum of understanding through the personnel process and the bargaining unit to increase base pay for existing positions rather than adding another full-time hire. The committee cited an illustrative figure of roughly $42,000 for the proposed adjustment (presented in discussion as a dollar-amount comparison to other staffing options). Staff said raising pay across multiple positions could be less expensive than creating a single additional position while better improving recruiting.

Board members asked for additional context on total compensation, noting Keystone's health-insurance benefit package is comparatively valuable and can amount to more than $20,000 annually per position; members suggested comparing wage rate plus out-of-pocket healthcare costs against neighboring districts. Staff said the matter should move to the full board or finance committee for a fuller review, and that any pay changes for union-represented employees would require an MOU and follow collective-bargaining procedures.

No action was taken; the committee agreed the issue requires further study by personnel and finance committees and a full-board discussion.