The school system in DeKalb County has taken another step to allay concerns that it wastes taxpayer money on unnecessary or overpaid jobs.
Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson asked the school board Wednesday to streamline the organizational chart by creating a new set of 17 job classifications with matching pay schedules. That's far fewer than the 365 that the school system has been using. The effort is part of a reorganization of the roughly 5,900-member workforce.
The board voted 8-1 in favor, with Chairman Eugene Walker opposing.
The vote will allow Atkinson, who took over the system's top job last fall, to tailor new contracts for the next school year. The deadline to issue them is this month. "Those will be her employees because she will have assessed every position ... versus inheriting her staff," said school board member Donna Edler. She said she supported the measure because she wanted to let Atkinson make "foundational" changes for next year.
The proposal was based on a personnel review prepared by a consultant in January.
The report by Virginia-based Management Advisory Group recommended that DeKalb reduce central office staffing by about 20 percent. But Atkinson noted a hurdle: job titles, and their lack of descriptiveness. The district employs directors, coordinators, secretaries and others whose titles and pay don't always reflect their responsibilities.
After current employees are fitted into the new positions, their pay will be adjusted.
The lowest paid employees, paraprofessionals, will earn between $23,000 and $46,000 while, at the top end, the heads of the nine new divisions will earn $160,000.
The transition will take three years, and is eventually expected to save around $300,000 a year.
The goal, according to officials, is to tie salaries to responsibilities and to "flatten" the organization structure and "right size" the system.
About the Author
