Teacher pay hikes proposed

Madison County teachers may be getting bigger paychecks this time next year. That is if the Madison County School Board approves salary increases averaging 2.7 percent as proposed Monday by Superintendent Matt Eberhardt. (The increases would also go to most non-teaching school staff like administrators and janitors.)

“Our employees have seen frozen salaries for five years, while the cost-of-living has increased,” Eberhardt said. “They see surrounding counties who pay higher wages and tell me two things: One, they do not want to be known as the lowest paid salary division around and two, they do not want to see people leave because you can make more money up the road.”

During the Feb. 13 public hearing on the school system’s proposed budget, only two citizens spoke out, even though it was standing room only in the school board’s meeting room.

One citizen, Jim Stolz of Madison, asked if any athletic program expansions were included in the proposed school system budget, which would be for the fiscal year that runs July 1 through June 30, 2013. Eberhardt said that two new sports programs were planned for Wetsel Middle School – WMS boys and girls cross country teams and a wrestling team. He did not say how much it would cost to create the new teams.

The other citizen who asked a question about the capital improvement plan and specifically remodeling the high school would not give her name to The Eagle.

In addition to salary increases, the proposed budget also would also:

* Increase summer school to four weeks.

* Add one position using federal dollars for the 2012-2013 year.

* “Retain debt service” to repair the school buildings.

* Cover a nine percent increase in employee health insurance.

* Assume the governor’s full pass-off of an approximate five percent increase toward the Virginia Retirement System.

“I believe this is a reasonable budget that does not burden the county,” Eberhardt said. “It does not ask for one additional penny from Madison. And, it invests in our employees.”

The school board plans to formally adopt the budget 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the school board headquarters. It is then expected to meet with the Madison County Board of Supervisors at 7 p.m. Feb. 29 at the school board headquarters to present an overview of the budget.

School Board Vice Chairman Jim Nelson encouraged all those who attended the meeting to speak in favor of the budget at all board of supervisors meetings.

“We do need support from teachers, parents, grandparents, from people who do not have children in the school system,” Nelson said. 

In other matters at the Feb. 13 regular monthly school board meeting, members:

* Discussed the school calendar for the 2012-2013 school year. School board members were in agreement they liked a set spring break the first week of April 2013 -- that would allow Good Friday to be a day off. School board member Tonya Taylor said would like to see school resume after Christmas break Jan. 2, 2013 and not Jan. 3, 2013 to accommodate working parents.

* Discussed two teachers who took advantage of the $10,000 bonus if they retired this year. They are Elizabeth Berry, a reading specialist at Madison County High School, and Janet Drumheller, an English teacher at Madison County High School.  

* Unanimously adopted the 2011 McGraw Hill textbook, “Whole Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology,” for Biology II.

* Approved four overnight trips. They trips include -- a conference at Virginia Military Institute March 5 and 6, a state debate April 20-21 at Liberty University in Lynchburg, a national Catholic forensics league tournament May 24-27 in Baltimore, Md. and a national forensics league trip June 10-16 in Indianapolis, Ind.

* Unanimously approved a supplemental appropriation to reflect a $225,000 for fiscal year 2011-2012 and moved $200,000 to fiscal year 2012-2013.

* Recognized the Boys and Girls Club of Madison County.

* Honored all principals for Principals Appreciation Week, which was Feb. 5-11.

* Noted that it was School Board Appreciation Month.