Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995                   TAG: 9501120067
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN AND BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL BOARD COULD GET RAISE

If approved by the General Assembly, School Board members could receive twice the $1,800 a year they currently receive. The School Board chairman could receive an additional $1,100 over the current salary of $2,400.

But raising the "cap" would not mean an automatic pay raise for the School Board, it would only allow one.

School Board members have not received a raise since 1984, and voted last year not to ask for more money.

School Board members said Tuesday they never asked the supervisors to request such an increase, nor did they know the supervisors had even talked about it until the motion was passed Monday night.

"I didn't know anything about this until I got your message," board member Bob Goncz told Chairman Roy Vickers Tuesday evening. "I thought it was a magnanimous thing for [the supervisors] to do, but does the chairman of the Board of Supervisors know that this was not a request from the entire School Board?"

"Absolutely," answered Vickers.

"I assumed that he was speaking for the School Board, but I did not ask him that," said Larry Linkous, supervisors chairman. Vickers "was probably doing what he felt was a good deed for the School Board."

Linkous said he met with Vickers recently to discuss several issues, including School Board members' salaries. Linkous said he agreed with Vickers that School Board members' salaries are inadequate and promised to bring the issue before the Board of Supervisors.

School Board member Annette Perkins was disturbed by the incident.

"I am concerned about the message it sends - a 100 percent increase - and I'm concerned about the way in which it was presented," she said. "I thought we were a board ... I think we should rescind that resolution until we've discussed it as a board."

The motion to rescind the resolution failed, 8-1.

Linkous said the supervisors' resolution was sent Tuesday to all three of the legislators representing Montgomery County in the General Assembly.

"The decision on the actual raises is still up to the local School Board," Linkous said. "This just gives them a higher cap."

Board of Supervisors salaries last changed in 1990. Board members earn $577 per month, or $6,926 a year. The chairman earns $677 per month, or $8,124 per year.

School Board members earn $150 a month; the chairman earns $200.

In the last month, the supervisors and School Board voted to raise salaries for county and school employees. They will receive another $185 this year.

School Superintendent Herman Bartlett has proposed a 4 percent pay increase for school employees in 1995-96. The county has not yet made its budget proposal.