The Jefferson County Board of Education has voted to delay action on a new system-wide salary schedule that would result in pay hikes for several different classifications, but then voted to move several central-office directors’ positions up two grade levels, resulting in pay increases totaling about $155,000.

The board’s vote to remove action on the proposal in Thursday’s board meeting passed on a 3-2 vote. President Dean Taylor, along with members Jacqueline Smith and Martha Bouyer, voted for the delay. Vice President Jennifer Parsons and member Oscar Mann voted against.

After the vote, the board room — filled with athletic coaches and child nutrition managers who stand to benefit from the new schedule — emptied out quickly, as representatives of each group met to consider what to do next.

But as those staffers went into the adjacent hallway, the board moved ahead in their meeting and passed the promotion in grade level for 13 directors.

The average salary for the directors was $89,233 when they were classified at the “Director 4” level. After the approval by the board — another split 3-2 vote, with Parsons, Mann and Bouyer in favor, and with Taylor and Smith against — seven of those directors will now have salaries of $107,286. Another director will make slight below that amount, and three more will get smaller increases that push their salaries to $94,421. (Another director gets a much smaller increase, and one other will not get a raise.)

That move prompted leaders of the American Federations of Teachers local to quickly send out side-by-side comparisons of the old and new salary levels for the directors to news media.

The new primary salary schedule, which would have given pay hikes to certain job positions — mainly athletic coaches, child nutrition (lunchroom) workers, school principals and some central office personnel — would achieve those increases through various ways. According to Supt. Craig Pouncey, the pay levels for those positions were below those of similar positions in neighboring school systems, which was leading to an exodus of personnel to higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

For instance, lunchroom workers would not get increases in their hourly rate, but would have contracts changed to work more hours per day. Coaches would get additional supplemental pay, depending on the position and the sport, and would also see their annual pay raises based on length of employment increased because the cap after 12 years of services would be lengthened to 27 years.

In the central office, some office coordinator positions are being switched to secretarial positions, resulting in pay increases. Office coordinator positions at elementary schools had been targeted for layoffs by Pouncey’s financial improvement plan back in April, among the 227 jobs to be cut in a proposal that was at first adopted by the board, and then rescinded weeks later.

Most of those affected by the proposed new salary schedule were disappointed with not being able to make statements to the board in public, and hoped they would be allowed to do so when the measure comes up for action again sometime in the next couple of weeks.

“I would have expected that [the board] would at least have the common courtesy to allow a CNP representative [and] a Jefferson County Coaches representative, and let us say what we do on a daily basis for the kids. That’s the most important thing,” said Jerry Hood, head football coach at Clay-Chalkville High and head of the county coaches’ association.

July 7 has been tentatively set (but not confirmed) as the date of a work session for the board to discuss the new schedule, and to get input from stakeholders. The board would then vote on the proposal sometime afterward, likely in a special meeting; if approved, it would be retroactive to July 1, when new contracts go into effect.

In other business, the board also approved new contracts for 20 principals and assistant principals. Among the moves of local interest:

• Christi Hamilton was confirmed as the new principal at Kermit Johnson Elementary, moving in from a school in Jacksonville, Ala.
• Larry Brad Robertson was confirmed as the new principal at Bragg Middle in Gardendale, moving over from an assistant principal position at McAdory High
• Gregory Moore moves from assistant principal at Pinson Valley High to the same position at Chalkville Elementary
• Aaron Jones moves from an assistant principal’s post at Mortimer Jordan High to a similar job at Irondale Middle
• Coy McIntosh leaves the AP job at Pinson Valley and transfers to Kermit Johnson
• Tanja Tyus replaces McIntosh at Pinson Valley, moving over from an AP post at Fultondale High.