The new school year began Wednesday in Warren County and teachers will begin to reap the financial benefits of a $2,000 annual salary increase this month.

“The pay raises will be in place in the August checks so everyone will begin receiving their pay raise,” said Director of Schools Bobby Cox. “Every certified staff member, teachers, will get $2,000 above their last year’s salary. We re-work our salary schedule every year based upon a raise. Our classified staff, sports staff, will get $1,000. Coaching supplement stays the same.”

New hires will receive an additional $1,000 a year.

“We were able to move our starting salary up $1,000 to $39,000,” said Cox. “We felt like we could cover that. That gets us a little more competitive statewide.”

Warren County Commissioners approved a 28-cent tax increase for 2019-20. The school system receives 13.5 cents of that to cover a $1,000 salary increase for teachers and computer upgrades.

Cox says a deal for computers is in the works with a four-year lease agreement with Trinity3 Technology. 

“We are working with Trinity3 on the computer lease. We’re still kind of working on that. We put it before the (school) board in July, but we tabled it until this month. We wanted to look and make sure the number of computers was right.”

A lease with Trinity3 will require Warren County Commission approval. Cox said he believes the agreement will be presented to commissioners during their September session.