DISTRICT OKS PAY RAISES.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

LITTLEROCK - Some 200 nonteaching Keppel Union District workers will get a one-quarter percent pay raise retroactive to July and a 1 percent bonus.

The raises will go to approximately 200 classified employees, or nonteaching staff, and three or four confidential employees, or administrative clerks.

``Any time you have a competitive salary schedule, you're hoping it will attract the best people,'' Superintendent Thomas Niekamp said. ``We think our pay is competitive.''

The raises and bonuses, approved 4-0 last week by the school board, will cost $20,000 to $25,000, Niekamp said. The bonuses will be funded out of the district's emergency reserve fund, and the pay raise may need to come from the district's operating budget, he said.

The district is mandated to retain 3 percent of its funds in its reserve account. The reserve fund is currently at 9 percent, the superintendent said.

Teachers late last year agreed to a 2 percent retroactive pay hike for last year and a 1 percent bonus in lieu of a raise this year.

In October, the classified employees got a retroactive 1.75 percent salary raise and a $47 bonus for the 2001-02 academic year.

Confidential employees, who do not have a contract and who do not have bargaining rights, receive the same salary raise and benefits as the classified employees, Niekamp said.

The raises, Niekamp said, will bring all employees up to the same level of pay over a two-year period.

The district expects to have to slash $800,000 from its budget over an 18-month period as the result of Gov. Gray Davis' reductions to educational funding.

The superintendent said the district's financial status will be aided by growing enrollment. Enrollment grew by 67 pupils this year, translating to $250,000 more average daily attendance funding from the state.

``Some of that is expected to make up for the shortfall,'' Niekamp said.