Report: 70% of city’s municipal charter school employees are earning below wage midpoint
Most employees working within the city of Cape Coral’s charter school system are being paid less than goal compensation, according to a presentation to the Cape Coral Charter School Authority governing board Tuesday.
According to the presentation, nearly 70% of employees at Oasis Charter Schools are earning below the midpoint of their published pay range.
Evergreen Solutions, LLC Senior Consultant Allie Crumpler said the study kicked off in July of last year with data collection for an assessment of the current condition to give them an idea of where the system stands, and areas to pinpoint during their analysis.
Oasis Charter Schools structure is inconsistent for its range spread for the 339 Oasis employees — the minimum starting salary to the maximum salary and how much range is within those numbers, she said,
With breaking the salary ranges into four parts, Crumpler said the largest concentration is in quartile one with 56% — the first 25% in the pay range, followed by the second largest in quartile four, which sits at 20%.
“The tenor decreases from three to four,” she said.
There was an employee outreach phase of the study, which was done virtually through interviews and focus groups, as well as a survey to all employees. The survey received more than 185 responses, a 50% completion with employees.
Those responses showed why employees came to work at Oasis and remains — the location, opportunity to make a positive impact, type of work and coworkers and work environment.
With that said, the study showed that 36% of participants had little to no understanding of the current pay plan structure and 87.8% felt that Oasis’s salaries were not competitive with surrounding organizations.
The average satisfaction level with base compensation was 2.87%.
The survey also revealed that 91% felt there was a need to adjust salaries to account for the local cost of living, as well as increase pay for employees, while 72% said there needs to be an increase in pay grade ranges from minimums to maximums.
There was a “small showing, 2 survey respondents that indicated Oasis compensation is at or above market rate,” Crumpler said.
The study also revealed that there were classification concerns in terms of job descriptions, as well as requests for additional support positions to help with teacher workloads.
“Overall, the top three issues that employees would like to see addressed: competitive compensation, adjusting compensation or pay, and adding career ladders for employees,” she said.
The study looked at seven “peers” — Charlotte County schools; Collier County Schools; Desoto County schools; Franklin Academy Charter Schools; Hendry County schools; Lee County schools and Pembroke Pines Charter Schools, as well as data from the Economic Research Institute.
When looking at the market comparison at the 50th percentile, at the minimum, Oasis is 10.4% below; at the midpoint 6.7% below and at the maximum 3% below.
The recommendation was to create three pay plans and to move within the pay grades horizontally with consistent progression.
The proposed pay plan for instructional employees has seven pay grades from a minimum of $53,336.80 to a maximum of $100,066.98. There is a range spread of 40% within each grade and a 5% distance from one pay grade to the next.
The pay plan for support employees is proposed for a range of $15 to $47.48 within 15 pay grades. There is a spread of 40% for range and 6% for midpoint progression.
Administrative employees proposed pay plan has five grades and ranges from $84,240 to $157,499.89. The range is 40% for each grade with a midpoint progression of 7.5%.
There were four options for implementation costs that include bring to minimum, an estimated $473,929.55 total salary cost with an average percentage adjustment of 5.8%; class years, an estimated cost of $1.28 million, or 12.1% adjustment; hybrid years an estimated $1.3 million cost, or 12.2% adjustment and tenure years an estimate of $1.42 million, or an adjustment of 15%.
She said if employees were not adjusted because they are already making above, they would still receive at least a 1% adjustment with estimated costs.
Superintendent Jacquelin Collins said they will share more exact figures from the study at a Jan. 27 workshop.
“Finance has to go through every column and figure to budget for next year,” she said. “The figure this year is one thing. Our intention is to come up with a plan that the board will adopt for salaries. Everybody will be bumped up this year with the new starting salary.”
The initial cost is one thing, Collins said, adding that compound from year to the next will be more as benefits increase.
She said there is talk that they could be looking at a deficit year.
“When we have a deficit year, it affects us,” Collins said, adding that they have to “take a very careful look at the maximum we are able to do and afford over time.”
Board Chair Kristifer Jackson said they knew there was a problem.
“We are not even at the 50th percentile, but we outperform every single one of them,” he said. “It’s a testament to our teachers. That is unbelievable — to turn around and know our teachers are outperforming the rest of them.”
Cape Coral City Councilmember Joe Kilraine said it’s a testament to the system, success of the system, dedication to the system and those in charge of creating the system, as well as capability to make a commitment and eagerness to stay. He said whatever they are doing right now they need to continue, so they do not lose what they have.
The municipal charter school system is composed of four schools — Oasis Elementary North, Oasis Elementary South, Oasis Middle and Oasis High.
The high school’s reported graduation rate is 100%.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com