District Officials, Legislators Talk Teacher Pay

District officials and board members recently had a chance to talk with local legislators about teacher pay.

Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew told Pickens County Legislative Delegation members that the district was able to provide a step increase last year to teachers, but that the district is "two steps behind" other areas.

"Our fear, of course, is that, as the economy gets betters, and there are teaching jobs out there, that we might have new teachers that might not choose to come to our county and other teachers that might come to neighboring counties to get jobs, because of salaries," Pew said. "We wouldlove to see us be able to give the two steps."

Giving the two step increases would cost about $2 million, she said.

"That is for the certified employees only, not our other employees in the district who are very important to us, who have not recieved any type of increase, other than a two percent, in the last few years," Pew said. "Getting some assistance with that is something we would hope we'd be able to do."

Board Chair Judy Edwards said she hopes the legislature can help with the issue of teacher salaries and step increases.

“I hope that in some way you can help us to catch up,” Edwards said, regarding step increases. “I think it needs to be either all districts have to do it or no districts can do it. But to say it's optional, that really puts us in a bind, if we can't do it, and another county can do it. If you can't fund us, say, 'Okay, step increases aren't going to happen, it's not optional.' If all the neighboring counties are us can do it, then it makes us behind, and we are behind all the neighboring counties.”

That makes it harder to retain good teachers, Edwards said.

“Our teachers are looking at other counties,” she said. “They know they can go somewhere else to make more money, and that makes it hard for us. That's a great concern of mine.”

Rep. Phil Owens said legislators “understand the importance that teachers play in the lives of their students and that they need to be compensated for the work that they do.”

However, he said the general opinion he's hearing from legislators is that pay increases and step increases need to be “tied to accountability and performance from that teacher.”

“There is continued reluctance to forward a step increase simply because you're there,” Owens said. “All the teachers I've talked with have no problem with that. All the teachers want to be recognized for the success they're having with their classrooms and the things that they're doing.”

Edwards said she didn't think there was any teacher who “minds being held accountable.”

“I think they want to be held accountable,” she said. “As to test scores, they want to see that their children have made progress. But when you start putting that (stipulation) as to whether or not their pay or salaries increase, I think you have to stop and consider, we have to to put some limits we have to put some limits on how children are divided. We have to maybe put limits on parent requests. We have to put limits on, okay, each teacher can only have so many LD (learning disability students), each teacher can only have so many special needs (students). Because you get a class overloaded with LD or special needs, they can't possibly be as successful as a teacher who's sitting with a gifted class.”

Owens agreed.

“You can't compare classroom to classroom,” he said. “You can only compare within the classroom.”