KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Knox County Schools said it's put work into a new budget plan that would give all 9,000 staff members a raise.
"For us, it really tells a story about the organization," said Jon Rysewyk, the superintendent of Knox County Schools. " Kids are our end customers. Our best strategy is making sure we have highly effective teachers in classrooms. Highly effective principals, and all the support staff that come with that from custodians to secretaries, security officers, and everyone in between."
The district's budget increased by 3.5%, which is less than last year's increase of 26%. However, that increase included federal funds and state TISA funding that was unique and no longer available. The proposed budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year stands at $683.7 million dollars.
KCS leaders found $41 million for raises in the budget by reallocating funds and paying off debt from last year's one-time bump in funding from the state.
The district hired an outside consulting company from Florida, named Evergreen, to conduct a salary study. That study compared KCS' pay rates to other districts in the area and across the Southeast. The goal was to make salaries competitive at market value, so the school system could better retain talent.
"Why we feel confident that this is market value, it's not an arbitrary number we came up with, it's a third party who did the study," Rysewyk said. "These scales are set up to market value with all the step raises built in, with retention bonuses every five years. So we actually think this puts us in a lot better position than just giving a percent raise."
You can find the report here. The Knox County School Board will vote on the budget Thursday. Then it heads to the Knox County Commission for approval.