Huff Administration kept Board, teachers in the dark about budget plan

The C. J. Huff Administration's decision to give only a minuscule raise to Joplin R-8 teachers and staff came as a surprise to the teachers and Board of Education members.

Board members were not clued in about the plan until they received their meeting packets at the end of last week, while the teachers found about it by reading the Turner Report.

According to the message included in the budget that will be voted on by the Board tonight, district employees will receive raises of $200 to $300 for the year, but that amount will be cut by $144  because employees will be asked to contribute an extra $12 a month to their health care insurance, something CFO Paul Barr blamed on Obamacare in his budget message.

That leaves the employees' raises at $1 to $3 a week.

To cap it off, teachers are being asked to forgo their step increases on the district's salary schedule, something that has become commonplace in the district under the Huff Administration.

The budget, though, is a plan, and that plan may be changed as early as tonight. Reportedly, the Board's Finance Committee, caught off guard by the plans for employees' pay raises, worked during a meeting this morning on a plan that might restore the step increases for the teachers.

Meanwhile, R-8 teachers are being asked to attend the 7 p.m. meeting in a show of solidarity to let board members know that they do not care for the way the Huff Administration has taken them for granted.