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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222676
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

6% TEACHER RAISES PROPOSED IN SALEM

Salem teachers would receive an average 6 percent pay raise under a proposed 1990-91 budget presented to the city School Board Wednesday night.

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.

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

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 pupils' lunches would increase 5 cents; middle and high school pupils' lunches 10 cents; and adult lunches 10 cents.

$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.

by CNB