TEACHERS MAY GET 4.1% RAISE MORE STATE AID SEEN FOR NEW YEAR

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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993                   TAG: 9303020290
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TEACHERS MAY GET 4.1% RAISE MORE STATE AID SEEN FOR NEW YEAR
The Roanoke School Board will consider adopting a 1993-94 budget tonight that includes an average 4.1 percent pay raise for teachers.
The increase's base is an across-the-board 2 percent salary increase. But actual raises would range from the base percentage up to 20.8 percent, said Richard Kelley, executive for business affairs for Roanoke schools.
Of the school system's 950 teachers, 265 would get a flat 2 percent. For 685, the raise would range from 2.6 percent to 20.8 percent, Kelley said.
Teachers who would receive a 20.8 percent raise - about 40 of them - would be those moving from mid-grade to senior teacher status, Kelley said.
Other contributors to the broad range in increases are tier raises and $200 tacked onto the salaries of teachers who have more than 20 years of service or less than nine years of service, Kelley said.
"One of the main points teachers were making was that their salary scale was somewhat less than Roanoke County and Salem," Kelley said. "We don't have enough money to correct that situation in one year. But what the board is looking at is, over a period of three years, adding additional money for senior and junior teachers."
Roanoke teachers have fallen from first place in salary rankings of the three Roanoke Valley school systems to last. The average teacher salary in Roanoke is $32,767, compared to $33,747 in Roanoke County and $34,875 in Salem.
Most Roanoke teachers work on 10-month contracts. Some are on 10 1/2- and 11-month contracts.
But Roanoke pays about $500 more than the county in teacher fringe benefits - primarily, health insurance - and $1,400 more than Salem, Kelley said.
"What we are trying to do is raise in three years to the same level of the county including the fringe benefit contribution," he said.
An estimated 62 percent of teacher raises would be funded locally, with 38 percent funded by the state, Kelley said.
State money would not kick in until Dec. 1, under a state-budget compromise that gives teachers a 3 percent pay raise.
Three percent "sounds good to the fiscal planner and saves them money," Kelley said. But in actual terms, that equates to a 1.8 percent raise for the entire school year.
"That's why we're having to fund almost two-thirds of the salary increase," Kelley said. "We don't get full funding for the whole year."
Roanoke schools did get some good news from the state - $250,000 more than it anticipated in state aid, Kelley said.
Kelley had budgeted for $275,000 in state revenue for the next fiscal year. He now expects that figure to nearly double - to $515,429.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB