Wood BOE defends pay issue
Members point to financial woes of neighboring districtsBy MICHAEL ERB, merb@newsandsentinel.com
POSTED: May 21, 2008
PARKERSBURG — Wood County Board of Education members Tuesday defended a recent decision to not include local pay raises for employees in the district’s 2008-09 budget.
Vicki Squires, president of the Wood County School Service Personnel Association, brought up the lack of a local pay raise during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s board meeting. Squires as well as representatives of the area’s two teachers unions have repeatedly asked for pay increases for district employees using state funds allocated through Senate Bill 541. The board and district administrators declined, saying the SB 541 money is needed to fund other projects and portions of the budget due to changes in funding. The budget was unanimously approved by the board last month without local pay increases.
However, Squires said next year’s budget does include pay increases for some administrators, including Superintendent Bill Niday, because those increases were part of their contracts. Squires said employees believe the SB 541 funds, which Gov. Joe Manchin and members of the state Legislature indicated should be used for pay increases, should be treated the same as funds set aside for contractual obligations.
Board President John Marlow said the employees will receive a raise next year through the state. Manchin and legislators approved a $1,600 increase for professional employees and a $700 pay increase for service personnel.
“Those raises are part of the budget,” Marlow said.
Niday said the state also made changes to “close the gaps” in the incremental pay scale for teachers, meaning some teachers with 25 or more years of experience will receive an additional pay increase of as much as $2,500.
Board member Tad Wilson pointed to recent cuts by neighboring school systems in Ohio as an indication of the need for fiscal caution.
“You have Marietta Schools cutting positions, Belpre cutting the band program, Warren closing schools,” Wilson said. “We do not need to get ourselves in a position where we might need to do that in the future.”
Member Comments
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MrAlex
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05-21-08 11:36 AM
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You make a good point, cowsr4eating. I think far too many people already "rite prety badly", but those are the people who didn't pay attention in skool or never felt that edukashun really mattered. But as far as the pay raises are concerned, WV teacher salaries are really rather pathetic CONSIDERING what they have to go through in order to become teachers. And it's one thing if you work for a coporation and make $65K a year then don't get a pay raise one year. But when you're a teacher and can barely survive on what you make and you realize you went to college to make less money than so many people who never went to college (and hoo rite lik dis), it tends to really devalue our teachers and the importance of education in our state. We all demand a lot from our teachers, yet we pay them like indentured servants. People need to value education and our teachers. I say, give 'em a raise.
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cowsr4eating
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05-21-08 10:52 AM
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Wait a minute. Most corporations did not gave raises last year, either. Personally, even though my company continues to experience record profits, only about 10% of the company received raises last year, all of them averaging 1%. Actually, have you read this newspaper lately? Most people already rite lik dat.
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MrAlex
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05-21-08 7:12 AM
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I just think it's a shame that teachers have to go to college for 4 or 5 years and then maybe have to get a master's degree and work for about 10 years JUST to make a salary similar to that of someone who never went to college. Are teachers not insulted by this? It kind of makes me wonder why anyone would choose to go in to teaching. It seems odd that anyone would choose to go to college for all those years just to get a very stressful, low paying job. Where would we be without our teachers? Without our teachers, weeed al bee riting like dis.
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