School board approves revised pay plan for 2026–27

The Montgomery County School Board voted unanimously to approve a revised pay plan for fiscal year 2026–27 after the administration outlined a set of targeted clarifications and corrections.

Angie Bland, the division’s director of finance, said the changes largely formalize recent position-title updates and reflect grant activity. "I wanted to just provide and highlight the items that did change on the pay plan," Bland said, noting that a Jobs for Virginia graduate specialist position will be added back to the salary scale after grant approval and will operate on its own pay scale.

Bland described several concrete edits: four positions had title changes and were updated, the graduate-specialist position tied to the Jobs for Virginia grant was reinstated on a separate salary scale, and paraprofessional substitutes were corrected so the daily rate matches the hourly equivalent (updated to $19.33). She also said paraprofessionals were added to the long-term and designated substitute lines on the salary pages and that the professional scale language about certification and degree-based increases was tightened with parameters and recertification requirements.

Board members asked questions about monitoring long-term fiscal impacts. One board member said, "So I'm gonna vote yes, but I would like to include that we continue to think about the sustainability of this pay plan because that is going to be affected as we move forward with other things," and Bland responded that human resources will implement final approvals and that the clarifications were intended to reduce ambiguity.

The board moved to approve the pay plan as presented; the roll call returned six in favor and the chair announced the motion carried. Next steps: the plan will take effect for the 2026–27 school year and human resources will apply the clarified certification parameters and pay-scale adjustments as described by Bland.