THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601170105
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
After reviewing a proposed teacher pay plan, School Board members last week sent it back to administration officials for more work, worried that it shortchanges veteran teachers.
The administration's plan would start new teachers at $26,200, a boost of $318 over the current $25,881. After 27 years with the system, a teacher's salary would top out at $44,720, which raises the current ceiling of $43,450 by $1,270.
While the proposal raises pay for beginning and experienced teachers, board members questioned whether veteran teachers with 16 to 20 years would be adequately compensated.
``I think it has to be massaged,'' Chairman Maury B. Brickhouse said.
``I'm worried that we haven't done more,'' board member James J. Wheaton said. ``It takes too long for a teacher in our system to move up beyond a reasonable level of what a starting teacher makes.''
The proposed salary scale is based on giving pay raises in ``steps'' tied to longevity. During a 27-year period, teachers would advance 13.5 full steps and 27 half-steps. Teachers could receive additional cost-of-living increases annually, depending on the amount of money available from the state and city.
Wheaton said the proposal fails to address what he considers the two most important issues: moving teachers up the salary scale faster and shortening the time it takes for them to reach the maximum salary.
Wheaton pointed out, for example, that teachers who are now in their 16th year in Chesapeake would make $31,600 - only $5,400 more than a first-year teacher.
Wheaton said the salary spread should be greater. In addition, Wheaton said, the salaries of experienced teachers should advance more quickly by the time the employees enter their late 30s and early 40s, the beginning of the prime earning years in a person's career.
Under the step proposal, teachers wouldn't top $40,000 a year until after 24 years in the system, just three years before they hit the maximum salary level for step raises.
Board member James M. Reeves said: ``Where's the incentive? It looks like these teachers are being punished, that when they got to 16, 17, 18 years of experience that they were being unequally rewarded or not being rewarded for their years of experience.''
In comments to the board, 16-year teacher Michelle Degnan said she actually would make less in her 17th year if the old scale is ditched for the proposal. The reason: Under the new scale, it would take two ``half-steps'' - or two full years - before a teacher would be credited with 17 years of experience and get a full-step raise.
``Apparently, expertise, experience and loyalty . . . were worth more to the system last year,'' Degnan said. Degnan pleaded with the board to ``rectify rather than perpetuate what I consider an injustice for those of us who've been around awhile.''
Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols initially presented the board with the administration's recommendation in December.
Board members last week instructed Nichols to prepare two alternate proposals that would attempt to address Wheaton's concerns. One would enable teachers to reach the top of the pay scale after 25 years, instead of 27, while the other would do it in 22 years.
As part of the proposal, the Nichols administration is recommending a half-year pay increase this school year. It would cost $1,051,247 and give the system's 2,378 teachers raises varying from $12 to $392.
Nichols said all but $90,752 has already been budgeted; expected savings of $250,000 in employee medical insurance could be tapped to fund the rest, he said.
Nichols said the administration's proposed pay scale attempts to ``take the best'' of two plans. One is from Municipal Advisors Inc., a Virginia Beach consulting firm the board hired 18 months ago for $59,875 to study the system's job classifications and pay scale. The other is from the Chesapeake Education Association, a professional organization representing teachers.
In addition to the teacher pay scale, the administration offered a separate salary scale for administrators and nonteaching employees, such as bus drivers and secretaries.
That scale reduces the salary spread between the minimum and maximum levels, increases entry-level pay for most employees and decreases the maximum salary for most jobs. The pay range for the deputy superintendent's position, for example, would change from $63,008-$100,719 to $59,996-$95,859.
Nichols said he hopes to present the board with the salary information it requested by next month. Brickhouse said that he is unsure when the board would adopt a new pay scale but that he wants to allow time for feedback from employees. MEMO: PRINCIPAL APPOINTED FOR HICKORY HIGH SCHOOL/12
KEYWORDS: SALARIES CHESAPEAKE SCHOOL BOARD by CNB