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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 31, 1995                   TAG: 9503310073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM MAINTAINS TEACHER-PAY EDGE

Roanoke and Roanoke County schools were playing catch-up this year, trying to close the gap between their teacher salaries and Salem's.

But the Salem School Board's decision Thursday to give teachers a 3 percent raise ensured that, despite the other school divisions' efforts, Salem's salaries will continue to outpace theirs.

``When Salem started, they said we couldn't afford to pay for a quality education and pay our teachers well, and those critics have been proved dead wrong,'' Salem Superintendent Wayne Tripp said.

The school system also will increase its current $2,000 per-employee contribution to health care by about $400.

However, years of across-the-board increases have created another problem. There is only about $3,000 difference between pay for starting teachers and teachers with 10 years' experience.

That's a problem the board, with the help of an appointed task force, hopes to iron out next year.

``When you do a percentage across-the-board raise, you raise the whole scale. But after a few years, you ruin the scale,'' board member Walter Franke said.

Next year's 3 percent pay increase does not apply to teachers with less than one year of experience.

But beginning teachers in Salem remain the highest paid in the Roanoke Valley.

``It still puts us $1,000 or more ahead of some of our colleagues in the valley,'' Tripp said, ``and our ranking of sixth [in the state] might drop to 12, but that's still a competitive salary.''

Most of the funding for Salem schools' $22.3 million budget came from the city of Salem, which chipped in more than $11.6 million, about $970,000 more than last year. $319,000 of that will go toward paying off loans for renovations to Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Other budget highlights include the addition of a technology specialist, a part-time school nurse and a $115,000 ``synergistic lab'' at Andrew Lewis. The lab will include robotics, video equipment and computers.

To pay for the lab, Salem put off the purchase of two replacement buses and $80,000 in additional computers for Salem High School until the end of the fiscal year, Tripp said.

by CNB