Rockdale County Public Schools boosts teacher salaries 5-7%

CONYERS, GA—Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) employees will see a range of salary increases in the 2024-2025 school year with the recently approved FY25 budget that focused on addressing student needs and remaining competitive with recruitment and retention of teachers and support staff. The Rockdale County Board of Education approved the FY25 budget of $221,929,321 at its June 27 meeting.

In the state budget, the governor provided teachers with a $2,500 raise which RCPS extended to all certified staff. In addition, all certified staff will receive a step increase. This equates to a salary increase between 5% – 7% for certified staff. All classified employees will receive a step increase as well and the governor provided additional salary funding for some classified employee positions, which will be given in addition to the step increase.

School systems across Georgia are experiencing significant increases in the employer portion of healthcare costs and the employer contributions to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) for both certified and classified employees. These increases are not funded by the state and have a substantial impact on the overall budget. Included in the RCPS FY25 budget is an increase of nearly $6 million due to these rising costs.

“Notwithstanding the unfunded mandates from the state in the form of increased benefits costs for certified and classified employees and TRS contributions, I am grateful to our Board of Education for approving our FY25 Budget, which includes salary increases for both certified and classified employees,” said Superintendent  Terry Oatts. “Our salary increases for certified employees went far beyond what the state provided as we included all certified personnel that were not included in the state’s salary increases, plus I directed an additional step increase for certified and classified personnel.”

“Our budget is both responsible and responsive in that it prioritizes our students’ learning, achievement, and growth consistent with our district’s strategic plan by providing the necessary resources for our teachers in critical instructional areas such as literacy and numeracy across all content disciplines,” Oatts said.

“I thank our Board for approving our budget so that we fulfill our fundamental responsibility in providing for an annual budget that meets our students’ needs,” said Rockdale County Board of Education Chairwoman Pam Brown. “As Board members, our primary obligation is to prioritize our district’s students’ needs in our budget. We are also committed to ensuring that our teachers, administrators, and support personnel, which include our certified and classified employees, receive competitive compensation so that we retain and attract competent and effective educators for our students.”