Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003082183
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the PTA may not go through with the request after receiving pressure this week from teachers and parents who say teachers shouldn't be asked to subsidize costs for textbooks, school buses, building improvements and other non-salary items.
The clash between teachers and the PTA over the salary-cut proposal came to a head after a meeting of the Roanoke County Council of PTAs Monday at Northside High School.
At the meeting, which was attended by two School Board members, the PTA council announced that it planned to ask the board for a 1 percent reduction in teacher salary increases. That cut would total an average of about $200 per year per teacher.
The money would then be used to help fund non-salary budget needs, which the PTA council says far exceed available funding from the state and county.
The proposal shocked and upset teachers, some parents and several PTA school presidents, according to Becky Deaton, a teacher at Penn Forest Elementary School and a past president of the Roanoke County Education Association.
Deaton and other teacher representatives said that the PTA council had failed to notify all of the PTA school presidents about its proposed request for the salary cut. Since Monday, PTA council members have been flooded with calls in protest of the move.
"From the word we're hearing now, they're saying this won't be mentioned tonight after all," Deaton said. "They'll be speaking in support of the non-salary budget needs, but they won't be suggesting ways to fund them."
Mary Noon, president of the PTA council, wouldn't confirm if the council had changed its position and said teachers, parents and the board would have to wait until tonight's meeting to find out.
Shelby Thomason, president of the Roanoke County Education Association and assistant principal at Glenvar Elementary School, also declined to comment on the issue until after tonight's meeting.
"The best thing to do right now is attend the meeting to see what actually transpires and what is proposed and react from there," Thomason said. "I don't think it's appropriate to discuss what might happen."
Teacher representatives have acknowledged that the non-salary budget items are needed and money should be found somewhere to fund them.
But they said the money should come from the county - which in turn is collected from parents and county residents through taxes - and not from teachers.
"My first reaction is that if I'm giving up $200, why isn't everybody else in the county giving up $200?" Deaton said.
She and others also were upset that the PTA council would try to influence the county on how to fund school budget needs.
"Suggesting where funding should come from is the responsibility of the School Board and the Board of Supervisors," she said. The PTA is "simply supposed to hand them their needs. They're not in the business of telling them how to hand their supply."
Deaton was surprised by the PTA council's proposal because, she said, traditionally the PTA and teachers usually support the same policies.
"It's never been a we-them situation," she said.
by CNB