Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 8, 1994 TAG: 9410100030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Teachers and School Board members alike say the system - which has come to resemble a bent-out-of-shape accordion - needs to be revised.
The scale was designed to give educators a financial yardstick that measures the way years of service with the school system influence what they are paid.
However, in recent years external pressures such as inflation and state-mandated, cost-of-living raises have skewed the scale.
Teachers at the top and bottom of the scale fare better that those in the middle. "It's that bulge we'd like to work on," Radford Education Association member Peggy Plum told the School Board on Wednesday.
Board members agree that the scale needs work. "Is it time to maybe come up with a new philosophy?" Guy Wohlford asked.
"I think you have to fix it or scrap it," Chip Craig said.
The scale will be the topic of an REA meeting later this month. School Superintendent Michael Wright plans to attend and board members also have been invited.
In the past, the salary scale has been adjusted to attract new teachers or to reward veteran employees. In recent years the state ordered local school systems to give targeted cost-of-living raises, which disrupted the scale's balance.
"It changes every year. You can make no assumptions," said board member Carter Effler.
The School Board has found the scale to be particularly tricky at budget time, when the issue of teacher salary raises comes up. There's no way to give an equitable percentage increase with the scale so out of whack, they say, and the amount of money needed to equalize the scale would be astronomical.
Earlier this year, Effler and Craig suggested eliminating the scale. Now they're willing to study the issue. "I'd like to see what they're doing in other [school] divisions," Craig said.
"We're in the same dilemma," Plum told the board. "We know it needs to be fixed. We just don't know what to do."
by CNB