County eyes school salary hikes: Budget would grow 5.4 percent

1/18/07 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle County Superintendent Pamela Moran presented to the School Board on Wednesday evening an initial budget proposal for the 2007-08 school year that totals $149.2 million, a 5.4 percent increase from this year.

Moran’s proposal included a 6 percent average increase in teachers’ salaries and a $707,685 increase in staff salaries relating to the $9.75 an hour “living wage” recommended by the county Board of Supervisors and a joint board subcommittee.

The rise in a teacher’s salary would depend on years of experience and the wages offered by other divisions in Albemarle’s market, said Bruce Benson, director of curriculum, instruction and technology.

“We are putting the bulk of our new funding behind our people,” Moran said. “We are continuing to shoot for all of our teachers being at the bottom of the top quartile of the market.”

Moran’s proposal accounts for an expected enrollment growth of 22 students from the current fiscal year and no new full-time teaching positions, she said

It does, however, add three new full-time English as a Second or Other Language staff members. The division currently has 858 ESOL students, up 13.2 percent from last year.