KCS Superintendent Jon Rysewyk discusses staff pay raises ahead of board meeting [Video]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Knox County Schools’ Superintendent Jon Rysewyk says a budget tells the story about the organization and what it prioritizes. This year, he says he wants that story to highlight the district’s hardworking educators.

“It’s a historic investment in our people,” Rysewyk said.

The $683.7 million budget allocates $41 million towards KCS’s employee’s wages and benefits. It would be the single biggest investment in staffing and benefits the district has ever made.

“When you really look at it and everything else was boiled away and we wanted outcome from our students, what is our highest leverage strategy to do that? It’s our people, our teachers,” Rysewyk said.

The investment would bump all more than 9,000 KCS’s employees to market value wage. Those numbers were found through a comprehensive salary assessment by a third-party firm, Evergreen Solutions LLC. For example, the current salary schedule starts a teacher with a bachelor’s degree at about $44,000 a year. The …