Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992 TAG: 9203270411
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Before the vote, School Board member William Ludwig did offer "thanks" to people who had given their advice about the $36.5 million budget at a public hearing earlier this month.
Most notably, a representative of Bedford County teachers had complained that employees needed more than the suggested average pay raise of 1 percent.
"I hope we can do more later," Ludwig said, before voting with the six other members in favor of the budget with a 1 percent raise.
No other School Board members commented on the spending plan, which is 2 percent higher than this year's budget but gets its increased revenues from federal and state sources.
Superintendent John Kent defended the level of teachers' raises by pointing out that Bedford County teachers got raises last year when many school systems did not.
Some experienced teachers in Bedford County got 2.5 percent raises last year and could get as much as a 2 percent raise next year, Kent said. Though the raises would average 1 percent, they would vary depending on experience level.
The pay scale proposed for next year is identical to this year's scale for teachers in their first 15 years of experience.
For teachers with more experience, though, the scale was revised.
Those teachers will receive raises - but smaller ones than they would have gotten this year for moving up a year on the experience ladder.
For example, a teacher moving into his or her 23rd year would have received a $600 raise last year. Next year, a teacher entering the 23rd year will get a $300 raise.
Kent said that the scale change was made in order to make the raises average 1 percent.
"Physically, no teacher's losing money next year," he said.
The School Board will forward its budget to the Board of Supervisors for consideration as part of the county budget next month.
In other business, the School Board voted to prevent students who do not pass the state's Literacy Passport Test from participating in high school sports.
Forty-six of the county's 628 eighth-graders have yet to pass the test, required for admission to the ninth grade and for high school graduation.
"My recommendation is to hold firm on the policy of no pass, no play," Kent advised the board.
Any student who does not pass the test in time for high school will take ninth-grade classes but be considered "ungraded," Kent said.
In addition to sports, "ungraded" students cannot participate in other extracurricular activities, such as band, yearbook or cheerleading, Kent said.
by CNB