Columbia Board of Education votes to change salaried parent educators to hourly

The Columbia Board of Education voted to change their salaried parent educators to hourly Monday night.

This change is in order to be in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, set to take effect December 1.

The board agreed after the unanimous decision that the most important goal was to make sure the district was in compliance with the law.

The change will affect about 20 parent educators who work for the school district’s Parents as Teachers program and visit the home of parents, working with them during a child’s early years until they enter kindergarten.

The reason for the change came from the department of labor announcing a law change under the fair labor standards act regarding overtime rules. the new regulations increase the salary for overtime exemption. The old rule meant if you were making $23,600 per year, you were exempt from overtime. Now, you have to make more than $47,476 a year to be exempt from overtime.

The board wanted to make sure that the public and parent educators were aware that the pay will not be decreased. Dr. Dana Clippard said, “We have no intent to change or diminish their salary, it’s just the matter of payment.”

Dr. Clippard also said that benefits won’t be changed.

When asked if the pay change would affect any sort of recruitment to the program, Dr. Clippard said it’s still too early to tell.

The district will be meeting with the 20 parent educators this week to discuss the changes.