[SchoolFinance] Process for Calculating the Additional Funding for Minimum Hourly Staff for SAUs in FY 2025-26

[Gravelle, Paula B]

Dear School Business Officials,

As you know, the enacted budget last year included language regarding a minimum hourly wage for educational technicians and other school staff (Public Law 2024 Chapter 643 – Part G – Minimum Wage for Hourly Public School Staff), a copy is attached for your reference.

The School Finance and Compliance Team has already updated the FY 26 salary matrices for the Education Technicians and Clerical Staff accordingly, which are reflected in the preliminary FY 26 ED 279s posted in January 2025.  You can see these here: https://www.maine.gov/doe/funding/gpa/eps/25-26

  *   List of FY 26 EPS Staff Matrix Positions<https://www.maine.gov/doe/sites/maine.gov.doe/files/inline-files/School%20Finance%20-%20FY26%20EPS%20Matrix%20Positions.pdf> - January 24, 2025
  *   2025-26 EPS Staff Salary Matrices<https://www.maine.gov/doe/sites/maine.gov.doe/files/inline-files/School%20Finance%20-%20FY26%20EPS%20Salaries%20Matrices%201.22.2025.pdf> - January 24, 2025

Also included in the law, is the following:

Sec. G-5. State contribution. Notwithstanding the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, chapter 606-B, for the 2025-2026 school year only, the State shall provide 100% of the additional funding necessary to achieve the minimum hourly wage for educational technicians and other school support staff established under Title 20-A, section 4016.

The SFC team will be using the following procedure to determine the additional funds necessary to achieve the minimum hourly wage for the FY 2025-26 school year only as per statute:

Definitions:

Adjustment Allocation:  Additional funding necessary to achieve the minimum salary for all eligible SAU staff will be the difference between the salary reported to the Maine DOE in the NEO Staff module in the FY 2024-2025 school year, and the updated statutory minimum salary as determined on January 1, 2025, and increased by the applicable percentage for the FY 2025-2026 school year.

Other School Support Staff: All other support staff paid hourly by the SAU.

MDOE: Maine Department of Education

SAU/School Administrative Unit:  A municipal school unit; a regional school unit formed pursuant to chapter 103‑A; an alternative organizational structure as approved by the commissioner and approved by the voters; a school administrative district that does not provide public education for the entire span of kindergarten to grade 12 that has not reorganized as a regional school unit pursuant to chapter 103‑A; a community school district that has not reorganized as a regional school unit pursuant to chapter 103‑A; a municipal or quasi-municipal district responsible for operating public schools that has not reorganized as a regional school unit pursuant to chapter 103‑A; a municipal school unit, school administrative district, community school district, regional school unit or any other quasi-municipal district responsible for operating public schools that forms a part of an alternative organizational structure approved by the commissioner; and a public charter school authorized under chapter 112 by an entity other than a local school board.

Responsibilities:

MDOE Data Team: Collect the actual amount of hourly pay for each individual staff member that is paid hourly from all school administrative unit(s) in the NEO Staff module and forward to the School Finance Team for processing under the procedure documented below.

SAU Superintendent and Business Manager: Once the letter indicating the amount of the adjustment per hourly employee is received and the funding has been allocated to the SAU; it will be the responsibility of the Superintendent to ensure that these additional funds are provided to each employee in order to meet the required minimum salary amount for the FY 2025-2026 school year.

MDOE Procedure:
The School Finance and Compliance (SFC) team will review the hourly staff data collected by the Data team from the FY 2024-25 staff data collection in the NEO staff module.  The SFC team will then calculate the minimum hourly rates using the percentage increase per statute and determine the difference between the actual staff hourly rates and the updated minimum hourly rates.

For those staff, whose current hourly rates are less than the updated minimum hourly rates, the difference will be provided to the SAU where the staff member is employed.  The SAU will then be responsible for providing the additional funds to the employee in the FY 2025-26 school year.

Once the required additional funds have been determined, the SFC team will prepare written notification to be sent to the SAU Superintendent, Business Manager, and Human Resources Manager.  The written notification will include the name of the hourly staff member, the current actual hourly amount collected from the FY 2024-25 staff data collection, the new updated minimum hourly amount for the FY 2025-26 school year, and the difference between the two that is being provided to the SAU for disbursement to the employee per statute.

If the hourly staff member is no longer working at the SAU in the FY 2025-26 school year, no additional funds will be sent to the SAU.

The School Finance team will add the total amount of all calculated additional funds to each individual SAU’s FY 26 ED 279 in Section 5B for payment to the SAU.

The School Finance team will maintain a file of the additional funds’ calculation and notification for audit purposes.

Please reach out to me directly with any questions.

Sincerely,
________________________________________

Paula Gravelle
Director of Public School Finance
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
Augusta, Maine 04333-0023
Email: paula.b.gravelle at maine.gov<mailto:paula.b.gravelle at maine.gov>
Phone: 207-624-6792
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