School nurse salary non-negotiable?

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Specializes in getting it done.

Hi all, I was hoping I could get some feedback or personal experience with this topic from the collective group. Upon my initial offer from a private school I was told the salary was non-negotiable when I tried to counter offer. There is a Staff Association with a collective bargaining agreement who delineates specific pay scale steps. This is my first time working in a school as a nurse and wasn’t sure if this was something that comes with the territory when you’re working in a school amongst teachers who are usually on specific pay scales (who actually have a higher pay scale). Any thoughts/experience with this?

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In public school, it's absolutely non-negotiable and then it's posted in the school board minutes for everyone to see and scrutinize for transparency.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

The hardest part of school nursing is to realize you are an afterthought. There are districts that respect our profession and decide that we deserve the same as teachers, but most view us as an insurance policy and put us at the bottom of the budget, just like our own personal budgets. They probably look at it in terms of ice packs and band aids.

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30 minutes ago, CampyCamp said:

In public school, it's absolutely non-negotiable and then it's posted in the school board minutes for everyone to see and scrutinize for transparency.

Same here. Salaries are spelled out in the contract.

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

Schools (public) are taxpayer-funded entities...the salary is what it is, unfortunately. We just approached our boss about bumping up our rate and it would take passing a taxpayer referendum to do so.

Don't just look at salary, though. Look at overall benefits (my insurance is pretty good & costs almost nothing, I'm in the PERF, I'm on my kid's schedule) to determine the true "value" of working in the schools.

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Specializes in pediatrics, School LVN.

I'm at a public TK-6 school. The district RN (BSN,PHN) is on the teacher pay scale and union. I (LVN) am on the classified pay scale and union I am on the same level as the Tech Specialist (IT people). This is my 3rd year here and my first school nurse job.

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Specializes in getting it done.

UPDATE: I officially accepted the offer after negotiating up about $4,000. There was a contract but they bumped me up one of the steps. For some reason they cut off the steps at 8 years experience for nurses but agreed to pay me based on 9 years (I have 10 in total). I at least feel more confident in accepting the offer and moving forward. A $30,0000 salary decrease is a bit scary! I am super nervous but also excited to start this whole new journey!

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Congratulations!!!

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Specializes in school nurse.
1 hour ago, UpliftingRN said:

UPDATE: I officially accepted the offer after negotiating up about $4,000. There was a contract but they bumped me up one of the steps. For some reason they cut off the steps at 8 years experience for nurses but agreed to pay me based on 9 years (I have 10 in total). I at least feel more confident in accepting the offer and moving forward. A $30,0000 salary decrease is a bit scary! I am super nervous but also excited to start this whole new journey!

Good for you! I was going to say the only "wiggle room" usually has to do with the step you're put on, but you know that now...

In my state, sometimes you can be bumped up to another "lane" on the pay scale if you obtain a master's degree, but that depends on the specific contract.

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Wow, congrats on being able to negotiate. I worked as a school nurse for about 33% of what I made in my hospital job. And was not able to negotiate. I left that position, and then a few years later was interested in another one that paid even less. I had to be honest that I could not afford child care and bring anything in with that hourly rate. Extremely low and disrespectful of my degree and my profession. Yet all of the school nurses accept this in exchange for the hours and summers off etc. We really need to stand up for ourselves and demand what we are worth. No other profession does this like we do.

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I would like to also add that they pay the school bus drivers better than the nurses. I actually have seen it advertised. I'm sure the bus drivers deserve their pay. But how can they pay their school nurses less? Very backwards.

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13 hours ago, pbajil said:

Wow, congrats on being able to negotiate. I worked as a school nurse for about 33% of what I made in my hospital job. And was not able to negotiate. I left that position, and then a few years later was interested in another one that paid even less. I had to be honest that I could not afford child care and bring anything in with that hourly rate. Extremely low and disrespectful of my degree and my profession. Yet all of the school nurses accept this in exchange for the hours and summers off etc. We really need to stand up for ourselves and demand what we are worth. No other profession does this like we do.

I could handle it if the environment was pleasant but the salary is just the start of the disrespect.

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