Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993 TAG: 9304150281
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SCHOOL BOARD CHIEF DEFENDS HIGHER PAY
How much is a school board chairman worth?More than his fellow board members?
Roanoke County supervisors answered that question with a resounding "yes" this week when they voted to pay School Board Chairman Frank Thomas $1,100 more than his colleagues, raising his annual compensation to $4,100.
That makes Thomas the highest paid school board member in the Roanoke Valley and the only valley school chairman paid more than his fellow board members.
Thomas defended the extra pay as compensation for the extra hours he puts in as the board's presiding officer. He said he works as many as 40 hours each month attending Parent Teacher Association meetings, working with Superintendent Bayes Wilson, preparing agendas and answering phone calls and letters.
Other School Board members said they worked 20 to 30 hours a month.
Thomas said he never asked for more money.
"I did not request it," he said. "It was put in the budget as a result of a discussion with the superintendent and the other board members."
The pay increase pales in comparison with salaries paid to some Virginia school board members, who earn as much as $8,000 a year in Fairfax County. But it far exceeds the $100-per-year paychecks handed to School Board members in Martinsville.
The raise also puts Thomas at more than than twice the annual salary paid to Salem School Board members, who are entitled to $1,700 each. However, none of them takes the money, said Salem Superintendent Wayne Tripp.
"They all give it away," he said.
Roanoke School Board member J.M. "Jay" Turner also refuses to accept the $2,400 paid to him each year, giving his pay to charity.
Lee Eddy, vice chairman of the county's Board of Supervisors, said the idea to raise the chairman's pay sprang from a recent joint meeting of the two boards at which they discussed the longer hours worked by board chairmen.
The county pays the chairman and vice chairman of its Board of Supervisors $1,800 and $1,200 per year more than other board members, Eddy said.
It seemed fitting to extend that practice to the School Board, he said.
Eddy said board members never thought to look at what other localities were doing.
"From my standpoint, that's not a factor," he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***