MEDORA

Bus drivers and instructional aides who work for Medora Community School Corp. will receive a slight bump in pay in 2017-18.

Also, Principal Austin Absher received an additional year on her contract.

Both actions recently were unanimously approved by the school board.

The number of bus routes will go from three to two, and the bus drivers will be paid $85 per day. That’s a change from last year, when pay ranged between $60.38 and $63.12.

Since instructional aides will be working more than 30 hours a week, they will be paid $12,000 a year, which is a $2,000 increase from last school year. One aide position was eliminated, so there will be five in 2017-18.

Also because they are working 30 hours per week, the aides will be eligible for the $6,326.90 insurance contribution.

Their total salaries will remain the same as last year, so there’s no increase to the general fund, Superintendent Roger Bane said.

The remainder of the classified employees will receive the same salary as last year. The corporation has 17 classified employees.

The only changes to administrative contracts involve Absher.

Her salary will bump up to $66,000, and her Title I portion is dropping to $4,000 — both $1,000 differences — but her total dollar amount remains the same at $70,000. Bane said he needed to move some dollars around because of cuts to Title I.

Absher’s contract also was extended to run from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2019. It previously was going to end in June 2018.

The 2016-17 school year was her first as principal and Title I specialist, but she had been an English teacher at the school since 2013.

The salaries of the corporation’s other two administrative employees will remain the same.

The collective bargaining process for teachers’ salaries for 2017-18 will start after Sept. 15, which is when the annual student count is conducted. That average daily membership will determine what the corporation will receive for general fund revenue.