THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407210508
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Dare County teachers, bus drivers and other school employees can count on getting their checks by the 12th of the month this year, unlike in the past, when they were never sure when they would get paid.
The assurance results from legislation sponsored by Rep. W.T. Culpepper III (D-Edenton), and affects about 99 percent of the system's employees. The bill was included in the appropriations budget passed by the General Assembly last weekend in Raleigh.
``This was something we asked for,'' Dare County School Superintendent Dr. Leon Holleman said. ``Basically, under state law, we could not give out paychecks until their first 20 days of employment or the first 20 days of the school year.''
As a result, Holleman said, teachers were not receiving their checks until the 16th or 17th of the month. That caused a hardship for some employees.
``We had employees who had bills due on the 15th, and sometimes they wouldn't be paid until the 16th or 17th,'' Holleman said.
``Teachers have car payments and mortgage payments that they have to make like everybody else,'' Culpepper said. ``The Dare County School Board and the Board of Commissioners asked me to sponsor the bill, and I was happy to do so. That's what I'm elected to do.''
Judy Hester, a teacher at Kitty Hawk Elementary School and past president of the 300-member Dare County Association of Educators, called passage of the bill ``great news for teachers.''
``I was aware that Dr. Holleman was going to ask for a bill, but I was not aware that it had passed,'' Hester said. ``This is something we were concerned about as a body, because before, depending on when the school calendar started, it meant that at times we might go a month before getting our first check. We're happy that the General Assembly has addressed this problem.''
KEYWORDS: DARE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD
DARE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
by CNB