THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603190095
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
At a lightly attended public hearing on the proposed 1996-97 school budget, representatives for teachers and other employees asked for better pay and voiced support for programs ranging from early childhood and elementary security to expanded reading initiatives. Two parents with children in special education favored proposed funding increases.
About 30 people attended last week's hearing at Lake Taylor Middle School, but only five spoke.
Shirley M. George, president of the Education Association of Norfolk, came to the meeting with a graph showing how local teachers had lost ground on salaries since a high point in the late 1980s.
In 1987-88, the average teacher salary in Norfolk, then at $28,412, exceeded the national average for the first time, by $383, George said. But the gains didn't hold. By 1994-95, six years later, Norfolk teachers were making an average salary of $35,273, $1,601 below the national average of $36,874, she said.
``Norfolk cannot vigorously compete for the best and brightest teachers by only keeping up with the cost of living - not when the nation is doing more,'' George said. ``Our marketplace is larger than our metropolitan area.
``We are aware that the City Council will find it difficult to increase its contribution to education,'' George added. ``But together we must point them in that direction and give them the resolve to do what is best for our children.''
Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, called for both a cost-of-living increase and a ``step'' increase, which is based on years of experience and given as employees move up a career ``ladder.'' Step increases were designed to be given each year, but they have not always been provided.
``Not receiving step increases is the same as breaking a promise,'' Flickinger said. ``We are gravely disappointed that public school employees are being treated like `step children' . . . To do less is to perpetuate the mentality that public school employees are second-class citizens.''
Barbara Howard, president of the federation's nonteaching classified employees, including secretaries, custodians and aides, said raises are needed to keep up with rising living costs.
``Classified employees are some of the lowest paid employees in our school system,'' Howard said. ``That means that the cost to the system to provide the raises we need, want and we believe we were promised will cost you the least amount of money . . . We work hard and need to know you appreciate the contribution we make to the school system.''
School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner told the groups that they shouldn't expect more than the administration's proposed 3.4 percent cost-of-living raise, which would require $5.5 million to fund.
But even a 3.4 percent raise is in doubt, school officials said, because they're relying on a nearly $4 million funding increase from the city to pay for it. City officials have told some School Board members that they don't have that much money to give.
``We need to do more and we'd like to do more, but under the current fiscal restraints, that's the best we can do this year,'' Turner said. Turner, who taught for 12 years in Newport News schools, said, ``One of the reasons I left the school system was because of low pay, and I'm very sympathetic to teachers.''
Parent Kitty Mann, one of two parents who spoke in support of a funding increase in special education, said more money is needed to expand successful programs.
Special education funding would increase by $1.2 million in the proposed budget, to $22.3 million. The additional money would add 12 positions and includes more than $800,000 for tuition costs for off-campus programs for disabled students.
Mann said her daughter, who has Down syndrome and attends Larchmont Elementary, is in an ``inclusion'' class, which mixes special education children with nondisabled students. She said her daughter has benefited from the experience and recently scored a 97, an A, on a classroom test.
``That should say something about the value of inclusion in our schools,'' Mann said.
Besides calling for employee raises, Flickinger lobbied for money to add security personnel at the city's 35 elementary schools. Currently, security is placed only at middle and high schools. A shooting last week at a school in Dunblane, Scotland, where a man killed 16 5-year-olds and a teacher, is evidence that even elementary schools are not safe havens, she said.
``We need to begin to address this void,'' Flickinger said. ``. . by an obsession to solve problems with violence. Elementary schools, their staffs and students are virtually left defenseless when they become the target.''
Also, both Flickinger and George called on the board to accept state money to expand an early childhood program for disadvantaged 4-year-olds and to reduce classroom sizes in kindergarten through third grade. The administration last week said the school district might have to reject about $2.4 million in state money for the initiatives because of a shortage in classroom space.
The two teacher representatives called on the board to add portable classrooms, if necessary, to get the money. by CNB