Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9506010047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The county School Board made those decisions at a meeting Tuesday night.
The board also decided that three teaching positions will have to be cut to meet its revised budget. Contracts should be in the hands of teachers being hired for next year by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Teachers had been scheduled for a 4 percent salary increase in the board's original proposed budget, which would have required a $500,000 increase in local funds next year . The Board of Supervisors reduced that increase by $83,000, and the School Board had to reduce its spending by that amount.
The board also shaved money for reading and language arts textbooks from $85,000 to $70,000, dropped the $29,000 that had been planned for increasing supplements for coaches, crossed off a $32,703 school bus that was to be added, and dropped a $40,000 architectural study of building needs. The board also decided to contract for two health school nurses, rather than hiring them, saving an estimated $20,000.
The new graduation requirements, adding another year of math and English courses, will take effect with the 1999 graduating class. Adoption had been delayed a month after parents asked the School Board to allow further discussion with school officials on the changes.
Superintendent Bill Asbury said morning, afternoon and evening meetings were scheduled for two days, and drew only a little more than a dozen parents total. The discussion centered less around the new requirements than how they would affect the class schedule of particular students, he said.
"Certainly I think the opportunity has been provided and certainly we have heard from those people who are opposed and why they feel the way they do," Asbury said. "But our recommendation still stands."
The School Board also approved a 28-step salary scale for teachers in the coming year, even though Asbury said it was not really a scale but a placing of teachers at certain levels depending on how long they had been in the system.
He said what the administration would like to see is a 14-step salary scale, but that will cost money. "When you squeeze them all together, you are paying more people more money," he said, and the board will have to be careful "not to break the bank."
One possibility is phasing in the 14-step scale a year at a time, starting with new teachers in a year and running two parallel salary scales until the 14th step is reached. "Basically, that's sort of the thought," said Doris Dawson, the school system's director of personnel.
Dawson said Pulaski County has significantly improved its starting salaries in recent years, improved a little at the top, and held its own in the middle level.
by CNB