As they shape Allen Community College’s budget for the 2025-26 school year, trustees will be asked to bump the school’s pay scale by $250,000.
The Board will meet May 27 to further discuss recommendations from Phillip Hays of The Darnold Group, a consultant hired last year to conduct a compensation study for Allen’s faculty and staff.
After nine months of study, the survey indicated that 23 ACC employees were under their minimum proposed pay scale, while another 54 experienced pay “compression,” in that their compensation was not aligned with their experience and qualifications, Hays explained.
The aim, Hays said, was to come up with “a realistic scale that would be competitive, fair, and strategic.”
With those three goals in mind, Hays recommended the college add another $254,056 to its $4 million salary pool for 2025-26, on top of the $176,734 trustees had approved for cost-of-living increases.
The compensation study also realigns the pay scale going forward, giving trustees a better handle on remaining competitive with its employees, while remaining true to the bottom line, Hays said.
“Getting out of the gate is the highest hurdle,” he noted. “Once you get over that, it becomes much more manageable, much more predictable.”
Human resources director Karen Gillespie noted the recommendations address not just faculty, but other staffers. To wit, it’s become increasingly difficult to hire custodians, she said.
“It’s a big challenge,” she said. “Other places pay more.”
Trustee Jessica Thompson encouraged her fellow Board members to adopt the recommendations.
“There’s been a lot of work that went into this,” she said.
Trustees will meet at 6 p.m. May 27 in the Spencer Ambler Board Room to continue the talks.
ALLEN’S pay scale isn’t the only top-to-bottom issue the college is exploring
Trustees approved a bid to hire Architect One for a full-scale study of the Iola campus’s facilities, including the main campus building, dorms and other structures, at a cost of $65,500.
Architect One reps will be on campus over the next few months to explore every nook and cranny, roofing and exterior skins, windows, mechanical, plumbing and electric infrastructure, and perhaps most importantly, the condition of the college’s aging boiler system.
Ryan Sigg, plant operations director, told the Board he submitted requests for proposals to five companies.
