Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993 TAG: 9301070276
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT MATTHEWS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TEACHERS QUESTION PAY SCALE
Judy Sgroi wants to know how much longer 11 will equal four in the Roanoke County schools.She has been teaching for 11 years. Her salary this year is $25,193.
But that's the same salary brought home by teachers with four years' experience.
Sgroi is crying foul.
A learning-disabilities teacher at Penn Forest Elementary School, she believes the pay scale is "undermining the experience those of us have in the classroom."
Though in the minority - only about 15 percent of county teachers are in the four-to-11-year range - Sgroi wants the problem to be addressed.
"When you've got 11 years under your belt, you've got more wisdom than someone with four years," she said.
Sgroi wants the pay scale to change next year. She wants a system that rewards experience. And she's not alone.
Members of the Roanoke County Education Association - including Sgroi - are working with the school administration to construct a new pay scale. The organization is made up mostly of teachers - more than 700 - and they hope there will be enough money in the budget to set pay according to experience levels next year, said Becky Deaton, president of the education association.
In addition to changing the pay scale for teachers in the four-to-11-year range, the association wants to lessen the time it takes to reach top pay.
In neighboring school systems, several thousand dollars separate teachers with four and 11 years' experience - about $7,000 in Salem, more than $3,000 in Roanoke and about $2,000 in Montgomery County.
Teachers with 11 years' experience in Roanoke and Salem also earn more than teachers with the same experience in Roanoke County.
Roanoke County teachers with more than 11 years' experience are paid more with each additional year of experience until top salary is reached in 13 to 18 years, depending on when they started their teaching careers.
The teacher pay scale in the county is complicated - enough to produce mounds of computer spreadsheets full of calculations - but the gist is that veteran teachers like Sgroi do not like being grouped with their less-experienced co-workers, said Allyn Mitchell, a Northside High School teacher.
"Teachers with 10 years' experience find it offensive to be with teachers who have four years' experience," Mitchell said.
Mitchell is doing her best to change the scale for next year. She and two other county teachers comprise this year's "salary team" that informally meets with a group of administrators to work through problems.
The salary team hopes to reach an agreement with the administrators, who will present it in February to the board.
One of the administrators meeting with the salary team, Finance Director Jerry Hardy, said he and the team have worked out possible alternatives for a new pay scale. But he wanted to keep mum about the details, he said, until funds come in from the state and the county.
Mitchell said she is hoping to split the group of teachers with four to 11 years' experience and put those at the higher end of the group in a new category.
This year, all county teachers received 3 percent raises. The previous year they got no raises.
Lumping teachers with various levels of experience into one pay category was supported by teachers in the 1986-87 school year. At the time, teachers wanted to reduce the number of steps - or the number of years - it took to reach top pay.
But to eliminate the steps, teachers with different experience levels had to be placed into the same group, Mitchell said.
Though some teachers say they are not in an uproar about the pay scale, Hardy said the "real problem is when they compare themselves to other people in other systems and find they get several thousands less."
Even if the worst happens - no raises and keeping the current pay scale - Sgroi said she wouldn't leave her job in protest.
"Money isn't everything. . . . I love my job, love the kids and what I do every day," she said. "But I can put up with it for so long."