LISBON — During Wednesday’s Columbiana County Board of Developmental Disabilities Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved a new wage index for all service and support administrators, Help Me Grow and Early Intervention employees.

Superintendent Bill Devon said the indexes needed to be updated and that the CCBDD needs to get competitive with wages before they start losing employees.

Additionally, to stay competitive in the job market, the board approved increasing the wages of paraprofessionals $2 an hour.

Approval was also given to add an extra step to the management secretary wage index.

Wage increases will go into effect on Jan. 1.

An adjustment to the MUI Support Specialist wage index to include additional job duties was approved.

Also approved was the revised Service and Support Employee’s salary schedule procedure to include part-time employees and establish how they will earn performance standards.

Three resolutions were adopted regarding the Transition Program including a new position description for the Administrative Support/Transition Youth/SSA; eliminating the transition coordinator/youth lead manager/SSA title and replace with Administrative Support/Transition Youth/ SSA on the same index and the hiring of Marcelina Higgins as the Administrative Support/Transition Youth/SSA.

The board also approved a new position and wage index for the position of service and support administrator/associate degree.

Currently the board hires with a bachelor’s degree for this position but is having a hard time finding people with bachelor’s degree to fill the positions so as a test to see how it works out the board has approved the hiring of one person at an associate’s degree level.

There are no plans to hire for this position until next year after they have a caseload for it, but according to Devon this will allow them to be ready to go when needed.

The board also approved the financial report and payment of bills as presented to them, the renewal of Infal and Finex as their accounting software through Primary Solutions at a cost of $3,900 annually, the 2026 operating budget to the Columbiana County Board of Commissioners, the Medicaid waiver match for 2026 in the amount of $5,680,040 and to allow the superintendent to purchase and be reimbursed for gift cards from Giant Eagle for students and Early Intervention.

There was no old business from the board or the superintendent.

In his announcements, Devon noted that the Halloween Dance held at the Robert Bycroft School on Oct. 30 went well and was a nice evening, and a Veteran’s Day salute was held at the school on Nov. 12. He also said that the Thanksgiving dinner at the school on Nov. 25 was well received, and the Winter Wonderland event on Dec. 6 at the Waypoint 4180 Event Center was the largest event to date for the Abilities Unite Foundation with over 1,400 in attendance.

The Columbiana County Board of Developmental Disabilities Board of Trustees meets the third Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. at the administration office, 7675 state Route 45, Lisbon. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Jan. 21.