County commission debates proposed teacher raises

Warren County teachers are still seeking state salary equity, despite the fact a number of county commissioners have made it clear they don?t support the property tax increase it would take to fund a substantial raise for teachers.

Budget talks are currently in progress and Warren County Education Association president Sheila Gann attended a Monday meeting of the Education Committee to plead the WCEA?s case prior to the actual presentation of the formal school budget in July.

Though the WCEA and Board of Education are still in salary negotiations, the board has expressed support for a teacher raise to try to bring local salaries more in line with state averages.

Education Committee chairman Bill Zechman asked Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale about the proposed raises. Zechman pointed out that figures show Warren County has been declining in the past three decades in pay parity, and he asked professional and community development coordinator Bonnie Collier to provide some statistics on this situation.

?According to the documents I have from the Tennessee Department of Education, in 1978 Warren County ranked 35th in average teacher pay in our state,? Collier said. ?In the 2005 report, our average teacher pay was ranked 83rd.?

There are currently 136 school systems in the ranking. Zechman said he realizes the county would have to take some drastic action to improve the situation. ?If we are to get up to the midpoint we?re going to have to do something,? Zechman said, ?and I know the board has calculated that.

?What are we looking at in the way of money,? Zechman asked Hale.

?Basically a $2,500 increase for B.S. teachers,? Hale said, ?and a $2,000 increase for master?s-level teachers. And then above that, just the 2 percent that the state is proposing.?

According to Hale, at the request of the WCEA there is no longer an indexing program in place, which takes into account years of teaching experience.

?So it?s an across-the-board raise,? Zechman said.

?Yes, $2,500 for every bachelor-level teacher,? Hale said, ?and $2,000 for every master?s level.?

Hale said the raises would cost approximately $850,000, which would represent a substantial property tax increase, somewhere around 19 cents.

Gann said she hoped the commission would consider transferring some of the income from the recent sales tax increase back to education to help fund the raises.

?We are currently sending around a petition asking that county commissioners give us back at least the 9-cent property tax they took away when the sales tax was passed,? Gann said. ?They asked teachers to support the sales tax increase and they explained how it would help the school system and bring about the building of Centertown School, and we were all for it.

?But we didn?t realize when we agreed to that and got out in the community and asked people to vote for it, that it was going to be replacing the property tax revenue that we had in our budget, and not adding to it. So it didn?t really help us, it just evened us out. So we definitely want to see at least that 9 cents that was taken away from us added back to us, and hopefully more, so that we can see an increase in salaries.?

But commissioner David Hill pointed out the school system wouldn?t have gotten the revenue without the county passing the increase.

?If you?ll remember, the city of McMinnville had already passed the tax increase of 9 and 3/4 cents,? Hill said. ?We asked you to pass it in the county so the school system could benefit from that. If you hadn?t passed it in the county, the city would have kept it. It was up front that money would offset the money that it was going to take to put into debt service to pay for Centertown School. You would have been paying 9 and 3/4 cents in McMinnville even if you hadn?t passed it in the county. So it?s not the county commissioners duping you into passing a sales tax that you didn?t get the benefit from. That was done to pay for Centertown School.?

Hale said teacher salary negotiations are still ongoing and no definite amount has been set to present to the county commission.