At the beginning of the year, current head teacher began offering raises specifically to caretakers (8)
I believe the answer is:
janitors
'caretakers' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'at the beginning of the year current head teacher began offering raises specifically' is the wordplay.
'at' says to put letters next to each other.
'the beginning of the year current' becomes 'jani' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'head' suggests taking the first letters.
'began' suggests taking the first letters (I've seen 'begin' mean this).
The first letter of 'teacher' is 't'.
The first letters of 'offering raises specifically' is 'ors'.
'jani'+'t' is 'janit'.
'janit'+'ors'='JANITORS'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for janitors that I've seen before include "They clean and maintain buildings" , "Caretakers" .)