Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993 TAG: 9301060263
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TEACHERS DEMAND ATTENTION
Mason Powell reached beneath a lectern facing the Roanoke School Board and pulled a foam knee pad from a paper bag.He raised it above his head.
"My peers and I are sick and tired of coming to this body each year on bended knee to beg for fair treatment," said Powell, a teacher and executive vice president of the Roanoke Education Association.
"We deserve better. We expect you to understand and to respect what has happened to our salaries during the last 12 years."
As the board makes preparations for the school system's 1993-94 spending plan, Roanoke teachers have made known their salary concerns - fueled by Gov. Douglas Wilder's budget proposals, which did not include teacher pay raises.
Like many other Virginia localities, Roanoke has turned increasingly to local money to fund teacher salary raises, picking up the slack of dwindling state funding. Last year, most Roanoke teachers received 3 percent pay raises; those who moved up the salary scale got an average of 1.4 percent more.
Still, Roanoke teachers have dropped from first to last place locally in salaries in the past 12 years, Powell said.
"When does Roanoke plan to commit to her fair share?" he asked.
Teachers repeatedly have said they must supplement their salaries with second and third jobs.
"I have been teaching for 25 years yet I have never been able to survive one year on only my teaching salary," said Powell - who is near the top of the Roanoke teacher pay scale but wouldn't tell a reporter how much he earns. "In order to teach, I have carpentered. I have painted. I have moved furniture. I have cut grass and hedges. I have dug ditches. I have hauled trash. And I have cleaned toilets.
"But I have never been paid a fair teaching wage on which to survive."
Eddie Johnson, a William Fleming High School teacher, said he teaches a night class at Virginia Western Community College and tutors on the side.
During the summer when school is not in session, "I do yard work," Johnson said.
Mercedes James, a Roanoke teacher, REA member and vice president of a Virginia Education Association district, asked the board: "Are you interested in the fact that more and more of our teachers are taking on second jobs because the wages that you pay are inadequate to take care of our family responsibilities?"
School Board member Nelson Harris said the board is "in a fair amount of agreement that we do want to see teachers get raises this year. And we would like it to be more than the 3 percent they got last year. But how much more I do not know.
"Until we get revenue projections from the city and find out about the state budget, it's going to be difficult to determine what we'll be able to do for our teachers."
Teacher pay is expected to dominate today's public hearing in Roanoke of the House and Senate finance committees. The hearing, the third of five across the state to receive citizen input on this year's state budget, is at 1 p.m. at Virginia Western Community College.