Minutes 06/08/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY JUNE 8>> 1982 and all other school salaries are to increase 8%, salaries of school administrators and other school personnel are proposed to increase 10% in Henry County, 10% up to a maximum of $1,700 in Patrick County, 7% in Franklin County, 9% in Pittsylvania County, 7~%-to-8.8% in Danville, and 5% plus-a-step in Roanoke. In early May, City Council asked Mr. Edmonds to survey businesses in the area to see what type of salary increases local companies gave to their employees. On May 20th, Mr. Edmonds reported that he had surveyed sixteen companies. He cautioned that there were problems in comparing one company's numbers to another, such as refusal of some to disclose their figures, differences in fiscal years, differences in semantics, etc. Out of the 16 local companies that responded, nine companies gave percentage salary increases. The largest salary increase reported (by one company) was 9.68%. The others were 8.4%, 8.2%, 8%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%>> and 5%. All of these percentages are lower than the proposed 11.7% increase in total Martinsville school salaries. Council asked Mr. Edmonds to conduct the survey because we realize that public salaries are paid by taxpayers and Council must set expenditures at levels that our citizens can afford to pay. Mr. Edmonds' survey con- firmed that the taxpayers, who must pay the City expenses, have gotten pay increases far short of those proposed for the teachers. Add to this the fact that about 6% of the local taxpayers are presently unemployed. Six months ago, on January 26th, Harry Davis, speaking on behalf of the Martinsville Education Association, explained the status of teachers' salaries to Council. Mr. Davis said that Virginia's teacher salaries were below the national average and that this happened primarily because in Virginia the state is only paying 29% of all money spent for elementary and secondary education, compared to more than 50% paid by most states. Mr. Davis told Council that the Virginia-and-Martinsville Education Assocations realized that the solution to the problem had to begin at the State Legislature and that the Virginia Education Association had proposed a Teacher Salary Incentive Fund to bring teachers up to levels comparable to neighboring states. City Council was asked to contribute the local share--about 49%--of whatever the General Assembly appropriated. Council took no formal action but agreed to consider the request. During the May 24th meeting of City Council and the School Board, I recalled the request made of Council by Mr. Davis on behalf of the Martinsville Education Association and I asked what appropriations the State Legislature had made to increase teachers' salaries. My question was unanswered. The next night, at the Council meeting, I addressed the same question to Mr. Davis. He said (that) he did not know. The next day the question was posed to Harry Smith, the Special Assistant