The Clark County Board of Education recently approved the 2019-20 salary schedules for Clark County Public Schools which included a 1 percent pay raise and other pay scale changes.

The board also approved the adoption of the 2019-20 tentative budget.

The budget included about a $1.2 million current year deficit and assumes a 4 percent tax revenue increase. The budget also includes additional security resource officers to allow each school in the district to have one on-site.

Board member Scott Hisle said he was concerned with the approximate $1.2 million deficit reflected in the budget; he said he wanted to see how sustainable a salary increase might be. Hisle said he would love to increase the salary, but he was unsure of how the district could afford to pay for it. He proposed consulting with outside help to see where they could trim the budget.

“I’d love to be able to do an increase, but I don’t see how we’d afford it unless we find some hole in the budget that I’m not aware of,” Hisle said. “And just as a side note I’m personally not a big fan of across the board increases as they say it’s equal but not equitable and I’m a bigger fan of targeted increases.”

Board member Ashley Ritchie said if Hisle and other board members would have voted to increase tax rates last year, it could have helped the deficit.

“During the last tax hearing meeting, Mr. (Gordon) Parido sat there and said word for word exactly what you just repeated,” Ritchie said. “He told you all if we do this, we are not going to be able to give raises, we will not be able to do anything. Him and I both sat there and told you. And you and two other board members voted to not raise taxes, and now we’re in this shape. And we’re going to hurt the teachers, which again hurts the kids by not giving any kind of raise. I just want to put on record that Mr. Parido and I stated that this would become a problem back then.”

Hisle said he proposed targeted increases last year and proposed a variation of a tax increase last year. However, the board went another route.

Parido said despite whether anyone was right or wrong on the issue, there needs to be a better process in place when it comes to approving the budget annually.

“I’ve never liked the way salary schedules have been handled in the past, and that’s why I asked at the last meeting, we didn’t need to see any surprises when we came here,” Parido said.

Parido said a process would streamline communication and allow the administration to present a final budget in mind with having previously considered all options and comments by board members. Parido said it would also decrease the number of times various groups come to the board asking for funds, as it would be better handled at budget time.

“We have to have a process to be able to do this,” Parido said. “We cannot just let these groups come in and try to put pressure on board members.”

Ultimately, the board voted 4-1 to approve the 1 percent salary increase across the board; Hisle opposed. The board also approved the tentative budget 4-1, with Hisle again opposing.

The board also approved summer work projects pending KDE approval.

The next regular board meeting is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.