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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222181
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

6% TEACHER RAISES PROPOSED/ $18 MILLION SALEM SCHOOLS BUDGET REWARDS

Superintendent Wayne Tripp's proposed $18.1 million spending plan for the next fiscal year would give all but beginning teachers a pay raise that exceeds the state-mandated 5 percent increase.

Pay for base-level teachers with bachelor's degrees would increase 5 percent. Pay for those with one year of experience would increase 5\ percent and for those with two years' experience, salaries would increase 5 1/2 percent.

The school system has treated beginning and early-year teachers as non-tenured in past years, giving each level the same pay increase, Tripp said.

"Now we're shifting toward giving acknowledgment of experience," he said. "They should be better teachers in their second and third years."

Salem's current minimum salary of $22,115 on a bachelor's degree scale places it 34th in a ranking of Virginia's 134 school systems.

The proposed budget would require an estimated $450,000 more in local funding than what the city has provided in the current year's budget, an increase of 6.5 percent.

The budget attempts to meet three of the school system's main challenges, Tripp said. One is to maintain a pay scale that attracts quality teachers to the school system. A second is to address the needs of non-teaching staff. A third is to deal with higher health insurance costs.

The budget proposes a revised pay scale for non-teaching staff paralleling that of city government employees, which provides an estimated 5 percent pay increase between steps and pay ranges.

The budget proposes increasing health insurance benefits from $500 to $900, an attempt to offset increased costs.

"Blue Cross has said they will not write another policy unless the school system achieves a level of contribution from the School Board that is equal to half of the employee-only premium," Tripp said. The board would have to fund half of an amount that has increased from $1,310 to $1,768, he said.

Other budget items include:

More than $30,000 to establish an International Baccalaureate Program at Salem High School.

$11,000 to fund a summer intervention program for at-risk primary grade pupils.

A $5 increase in substitute teacher pay, from $40 to $45 per day.

A $10 increase in driver education fees, from $25 to $35.

Price increases for school lunches. Elementary pupil lunches would increase five cents, 10 cents for middle and high school student lunches and 10 cents for adult lunches.

$68,000 for two new school buses.

$15,000 for new uniforms for the Salem High School Band.

$8,000 for an athletic training program at Salem High School.

The School Board will review the budget again on April 10.