Minutes 06/08/1982 - Laserfiche WebLink

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( . {' :c " fi JUNE 8, 1982 TUESDAY for the State Board of Education. Mr. Smith explained that the State Legislature recommended that localities raise teachers' salaries at least 10% in each year of the biennium and then (the State Legislature) did not appropriate enough to fund the requested salary increases. He added that the majority of Virginia's localities were granting 10% salary increases to teachers. A few days later I found a two-month-old March 15th copy of the Martinsville Bulletin which reported that "area schoolteachers could be in line for 10% raises in each of the next two years as a result of General Assembly approval of an $84 million increase for education in 1982-84." The same article pointed out (that) there was no guarantee the money would be used for teachers' raises but that "Jim Calkins anticipates that City Council and the School Board will use it for that purpose to meet the State's intent of increasing salaries by 10 percent." To bring this into focus: On January 26th, the Martinsville Teachers Association requested City Council to pay its proportionate share of whatever the State Legislature appropriated to increase teachers' salaries. In March, the State Legislature asked localities to increase teachers' salaries at least 10% but didn't appropriate enough money to fund the increases. In April, the Martinsville School Board proposed teacher salary increases of 11.5%-to-12.6%, and overall total school salary increases of 11.7%. In May, City Council requested the School Board to cut $84,000.00 from their budget request, (an amount) which would still insure sizeable salary increases of at least 10% for teachers and probably more than 10% if the School Board took cuts in areas other than personnel, the result of which will be in line with what was requested of Council in January by the Martinsville Education Association.....that is, that Council pay its proportionate share of whatever the State Legislature appropriated to increase teachers' pay. And, the very next day, Harry Davis stated that the $84,000.00 cut would "do a great deal of damage to morale in the Martinsville School System"; Mrs. Pat Dameron, Chairperson of the Community Action Council, charged that "by cutting the school budget, Council is underwriting borderline education, not quality education; and, Dr. Calkins stated, "....the more they take out of the hides of personnel, the more effect it will have on morale". The facts just don't justify these statements.