The Compensation and Benefits of the Dooly County School System Essay Example

extra work, and this work is considered in-kind. Compensation for directors in Dooly County ranges from $70,000 to $75,000, but this may be more if the person holds a higher degree. Their extra curricular activities that they monitor after school hours are also considered in-kind. Principals in Dooly County have many responsibilities, not only do they have to monitor and lead the school; they also have to attend all extracurricular activities.

Principals in the Dooly County School systems receive compensation that ranges from $80,000 and $95,000. All off the activities that principals monitor, they are not compensated any more money. Compensation for teachers is based on whether they are first-year teachers or teachers that have been teaching for a few years. First year teacher’s compensation starts at $26,000, as they go on in their teaching career and/or achieve a higher degree, their compensation also increases. Teachers that have obtained their masters degree or 6-year degree, they will receive compensation ranging from $45,000 to $55,000.

Clerical employees are paid on a base salary, but they are paid using a scale. This scale pinpoints the number of years that the person has worked and they are compensated on the number of years that have worked. Compensation ranges from $17,500 to $25,000. Custodians, lunchroom workers, and bus drivers are paid by the hour, so when they do not come to work they are not paid. They do not have the luxury of being paid when they are out sick or for personal reasons. Maintenance workers are paid by the hour, but they are paid above minimum wage.

These workers are always on call. Whenever something goes wrong at

the school, whether night or day, they are on the job to fix the problem. Although the compensation is good in Dooly County, it could always stand to be improved, but the benefits make up for the compensation. “Benefits represent non-monetary rewards” (Martocchio, 2009). Employee benefits include any variety of programs that provide time off, employee services, and protection programs. The discretionary benefits that the Dooly County School system offers are paid time off.

All twelve-month employees receive paid vacation. The superintendent, directors, principals, clerical staff, and maintenance workers receive ten (10) days vacations. Custodians that are twelve-month employees receive five (5) days paid vacation. Twelve-month employees receive their vacation days at the start of the new fiscal year which begins on July 1st. “Benefits available through payroll deductions are classified as two types (mandatory or voluntary” (Personnel Handbook, 2008). Mandatory deductions are required by law.

The mandatory reductions are federal income tax withholding and state income tax withholding, teacher’s retirement, public school employees retirement, social security/old age, survivors death insurance tax, and Medicare tax. “All full time employees have the opportunity to elect to participate in voluntary deductions” (Personnel Handbook, 2008). Some of the voluntary deductions include dental insurance, credit union, disability insurance, life insurance, medical/hospitalization, and etc.

Although the compensation and benefits that the school system in Dooly County provides for their employees are good, there is always room for improvement. A benefit that would help the employees would be a sick leave bank or donated leave pool. “The purpose of the donated leave pool is to provide a means or employees to donate and receive paid leave to alleviate hardships caused to

an employee or the employee’s family if an illness or injury forces and employee to exhaust all earned leave time” (www. psu. edu). This program would be a great access to the employees of Dooly County. When an employee has exhausted all of their sick leave and personal leave days, whenever they do not come to work, their days pay is deducted from their check. By having a sick leave bank, the employees would be able to acquire a day or days from the donated leave pool to take care of themselves or their families. Donation to the donated leave pool is a voluntary action for the employee.

Before a donated leave pool is established, there are several factors that need to be considered. “One factor will be the board’s philosophy on providing additional leaves of absences for an employee’s illness. If the board is considering a sick leave bank, it will want to maintain a healthy skepticism. It should weigh the pros and cons, ensuring that administration of the plan is not overly burdensome or cumbersome, that appropriate controls and criteria are put into place and taking into account the requirements of the law” (www. njsba. org).

Because of the financial implications, the maximum an employee can donate to the donated leave pool in any given calendar year is 120 hours” (www. spsu. edu). School systems in Georgia have not adopted this policy yet. Colleges seem to have this policy already established within their systems. Having this policy in place will allow the employees who have exhausted all of their sick and personal leave to acquire a day from the donated pool to either

take care of themselves or their families. The Williamsburg-James City County public school has established this policy (GCDBD).

The employees of Williamsburg-James City County public school “employees may elect to donate individually earned sick leave to another employee for the employee’s serious or life-threatening personal illness, or injury, or to care for an immediate family member with a life threatening illness or injury:” (Personnel Handbook, 2009). The Dooly County School system provides adequate compensation and benefits for their employees. The compensation paid to the employees in this small county helps them to provide for their families, the benefits are what attract people to Dooly County.