Compensation and Pay Plan

Board Policy 6.222

2019-2020 BOARD APPROVED SALARY SCHEDULE (Click to Download)

The Superintendent shall prepare or cause to be prepared salary schedules for school system personnel each fiscal year.  The salary schedules shall be presented annually to the Board for review and approval.

Base pay for classroom teachers and those other selected, certificated individuals whose work day is spent working directly with students or whose work product solely benefits the instruction of children, shall be determined by the State of Alabama Teacher's Salary Matrix.

For all other employees, including principals, assistant principals, and central office certified administrators, the Superintendent shall develop and recommend a compensation or pay plan to the Board for adoption. Changes in the plan, after initial adoption, shall be approved annually by the Board.

The compensation or pay plan is designed to provide appropriate pay for the assessed worth of system jobs. The current plan shall consist of step salary schedules for the following employee groups or pay families:

  1. Teachers
  2. Administrative/Professional
  3. Clerical/Technical
  4. Manual Trades
  5. High School Principals
  6. Middle School Principals
  7. Elementary School Principals
  8. High School Assistant Principals
  9. Middle School Assistant Principals
  10. Elementary School Assistant Principals
  11. Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy
  12. Child Nutrition Program Managers and CNP Assistants
  13. Bus Drivers
  14. Bus Aides
  15. Nurses

The compensation or payplan is designed and administered to accomplish the following:

Stay competitive with appropriate labor markets for the various categories of jobs performed by personnel, recognize the levels of skill, effort, and responsibility required for different jobs, protect continued length of service to the Board with regard to the hiring of new employees, and fiscally control and provide cost effective guidelines.

A copy of the System's compensation or pay plan for the current year is available in the administrative offices.

Step Advancement:

Each eligible classified employee and certified personnel not paid on the teacher's salary matrix shall advance one step on the salary schedule each budget year (currently October 1 of each year).  In years in which proration is declared in the state's Educational Trust Fund, causing a reduction in funding to the System, or in years in which local education tax revenues fall below the level received in the preceding fiscal year, the Board shall by unanimous vote cause step movement not to occur.  Employees whose annual, summative evaluation is less than satisfactory shall not advance to the next step.

Employees paid on the teacher's salary schedule (the State Teachers Salary Matrix)shall progress automatically to the next appropriate step. 

Assignment to Pay Grade:
Consistent with economic and job market indicators, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources (the pay plan administrator) shall recommend to the Superintendent the initial assignment or re-assignment of a job title to a specific pay grade and step schedule. The annual publication of the compensation or pay plan (i.e., salary schedules) shall reflect any adjustments made.
Assignment to Step within Pay Grade
The steps within each of the pay grades are compensation steps and are not based on experience credit.  They are NOT experience steps.  Personnel can be assigned to a compensation step based on factors other than experience. Market competitiveness for the particular position can be considered.
Salary Retention
 A contract principal who is transferred voluntarily or otherwise to a school that is smaller in enrollment shall retain the same salary and compensation step as held previously until the end of the contract period.   A tenured principal or assistant principal who is transferred voluntarily or otherwise in the same position to a school with a smaller enrollment shall retain the same compensation step for a period of one employment year (July 1 through June 30) or portion thereof.  At the end of that period of time, the salary appropriate for the work assignment in the subsequent year shall be given.

If a principal or assistant principal is transferred, either voluntarily or otherwise to a position other than principal or assistant principal, or if he or she applies for and is recommended and approved for a central office position, the salary shall be paid on the appropriate step for the new position.Experience in the System will be a major factor in determining appropriate step placement.  If the principal or assistant principal has at least ten year's administrative experience (including time spent as a supervisor in central administration, he or she may be placed on the same step as any current central office employee performing the same job functions and carrying the same job title.  If he or she has between five and ten years administrative experience in the System, he or she shall be placed at least one compensation step below current central office employees performing the same job functions and carrying the same job title.  Those with five years of less will be placed at least two steps below current central office employees performing the same job functions.  He/She cannot be placed on a higher step than any other employee performing the same job function or carrying the same job title.

A principal who is re-assigned or voluntarily accepts a position of assistant principal, he or she will be placed on the Assistant Principal Step Salary Schedule at the same step he or she occupied as a principal.  Under no circumstance, however, can he/she be placed on a step equal to or greater than any other assistant principal who has more years of experience in the System as an assistant principal or principal.  If the principal had earlier been placed on a higher step as in incentive, his/her step will be reduced by the amount of the incentive to determine the appropriate step placement.  

If a contract principal's contract is not renewed, and if he/she is hired in another position other than principal, he/she shall be placed on the salary schedule appropriate for the work assignment (i.e., he/she shall not retain the salary of a principal for one year.)

If necessary, a principal shall be given a salary adjustment on the step schedule to pay at least $1.00 more than the base of the highest paid assistant principal or teacher assigned to the same school.  Base pay does not include supplements that are paid for employees with AA certificates and doctorates or any other supplemental pay.

New Jobs: Newly established positions or jobs approved by the Superintendent shall be analyzed and classified by the pay plan administrator and assigned to an existing job family and corresponding pay grade.
Assignment of Salaries for New Hires

The Superintendent or designee shall approve pay assignment to a step within the appropriate salary schedule for new employees in accord with state law and regulations and the following general guidelines:

  • New employees with limited work experience in the job title to which they are being hired shall be placed generally at the zero (Step 0) step of the assigned step salary schedule.
  • With the Superintendent's approval, new employees shall be placed at any other step above Step Zero for documented programmatic reasons.  In no case, however, will a new hire be placed at the highest step of the pay grade.