Employees in the Harlan County Public Schools will be receiving a four percent raise for the 2025-2026 school year.
The raise is for certified and classified staff across the board in all positions, said Superintendent Brent Roark during the board of education’s special meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was Roark’s last as superintendent as he is retiring on June 30th.
“I want to clarify that this board has given a 17-percent raise over the past five years to all employees -- that’s a 17 percent base raise to all employees,” said Roark.
Employees received two percent in 2021-2022, five percent in 2022-2023, six percent in 2023-2024 and now four percent in 2025-2026.
“That is a fantastic track record for this board for five years of raises with no tax increases to the public,” he said.
“You are doing a real good job with the taxpayers’ money,” Roark told the board members.
Roark noted that the state has been pushing for all districts to get the base salary up.
“Our base salary is $40,753 now for a Rank III zero years, a starting teacher with no experience. We are right at that $41,000 mark where they want us to be,” he said.
Roark noted that the lowest paid employee in the district is $11.57 per hours. That is a classified position.
“A 20-year Rank I teacher is now $67,742 for a base 185-day contract,” he said “That is something for you to be pretty proud of.”
