Preliminary agreement made for raises to teachers

The Montgomery County school board announced it has come to a preliminary agreement that will increase teachers' and supporting service workers' current salaries by two percent for the 2005 fiscal year, according to The Gazette.

The school board and the teachers union have already ratified the agreement, but the supporting service union must now do so as well.

The salary increase, called a "cost-of-living adjustment," will start on July 1. According to The Gazette, the raises will increase the operating budget request by approximately $20.7 million, raising the total projected budget to almost $1.61 billion.

Science teacher Leslie Backus, who is one of Blair's representatives on the school board, says she supports the increase in pay because partial compensation is better than nothing. "I thought [the agreement] was the best contract we were likely to get," Backus said.

Social Studies teacher Patricia Anderson feels that a two-percent raise won't be enough. "Teachers remain among the largest group of underpaid professionals in the country. My rent went up four percent, so this two percent isn't much, but it will help," Anderson said.

Backus believes that a five-percent raise would better make up for the higher cost of living. "[A five-percent raise] would have been reasonable considering how many years the cost of living goes up and we don't get raises," Backus said.

Both Anderson and Foreign Language Department Head Joseph Lynch agree that teachers all over the county need wages that match the cost of living. "If the price of gas goes up every year and the price of my groceries goes up every year… then it makes sense for teachers to receive more compensation," Lynch said.

Backus believes that when it comes to budget cuts, teachers suffer the most. "If they have to choose, [they should] pay the people: teachers, bus drivers, janitors. If they're not happy, they won't do as good of a job, not out of spite, just because unhappy people don't work as well as happy people," Backus advised.

Backus feels that there should be an incentive to keep teachers from staying in the school system after 20 years. "Once you're at the top, you get the same raises as everyone else," Backus said.