DATE: Tuesday, June 10, 1997                TAG: 9706100230

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   50 lines

SCHOOL BOARD GIVES ITSELF PAY RAISE IN CHESAPEAKE

For the past 14 years, School Board members have made $3,000 a year. Monday night, they decided it was time for a raise.

The board voted 6-3 to give $500 raises effective July 1 and an additional $1,500 raise effective July 1, 1998. For the board chairman, the raises will be $1,000 and $1,500, respectively.

With their vote, the board members have decided to pay themselves $5,000 per year by next July, the maximum the state allows. The board chairman will make $5,500. City Council members make $23,000 a year.

Several board members said it was important to approve the raise to make it possible for those who are not financially well off to consider running for the office. They argued that those who don't need the raise don't have to take it.

``It might be nice someday to have a single father or a single mother on the board,'' said Thomas Mercer Sr., who made the motion for the raise. He said he had not decided whether he would take it.

``When I took the position, I didn't know there was any money involved,'' said Vice Chairman Roderic A. Taylor. ``I voted for it for those who truly do need it. If they took it all away, I would still work. . . . I might consider turning it back if it were something that benefited the students - but that's something I should decide, not something that's decided for me.''

Board members James J. Wheaton, Jeffrey A. Rowland and Thomas Bray voted against the pay raise. Wheaton and Rowland were especially vocal in doing so.

Wheaton made a motion that the money be used instead to buy library books to strengthen the Accelerated Reader program.

Wheaton said that if the board members had a problem with their pay, they should have made that clear when they ran for office.

``I feel it's a little disingenuous to say that we're undercompensated for the job we do now,'' Wheaton said.

He added that talk of any salary increase should have been part of the recently completed budget deliberations. Wheaton also said the timing of Monday's vote was particularly bad because at the last board meeting, members had to make cuts in the budget to help make up a city funding shortfall.

``Last meeting,'' Wheaton said, ``we came in saying we don't have enough money to do what we ought to be doing.'' He said he would not take the raise.

Rowland questioned the characterization of the raise as a small increase.

``Over a one-year period, we're talking about a 66 percent increase in our pay,'' he said. ``I don't think that's a small increase.''

To be exact, it totals $18,500, including the 1998 increase - and assuming all nine board members accept their raises. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOL BOARD PAY RAISE

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