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During FY02-03, the Teachers Salary Committee met regularly to develop a new salary scale for teachers. The committee studied several different scale designs including an indexed scale that would make each step a fixed percentage higher than the previous step. Salary costs were projected to be far in excess of available funding for an indexed scale. However, the current scale was not adequately addressing the middle of the scale where a 10 year teacher makes $4,453 more than a new teacher yet a 20 year teacher makes $10,000+ more than a 10 year teacher. This problem is exacerbated by the very large increase between step 19 and 20 resulting from prior scale designs and the need to continually increase the starting salary each year to attract new teachers.

A new scale was designed that increased the starting salary to $31,000 and provided for equal step increases between step 0 and step 19 of $450. Step 20 was frozen at $45,500 to begin to eliminate the inequitable increase of $5,950 (down from $6,032 the prior year). All teachers above the top of scale (step 20) were given a $505 increase. The longevity bonuses were rolled into the base salary for all employees above the top of scale so no teacher lost pay. This created "tier" steps for the old longevity increments as follows:

21 – 25 years ---- $46,000

26 – 30 years ---- $46,800

31 or more years ---- $47,800

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The actual employee increases from the previous year scale to the next step on this scale ranged from $500 to $6,037 or (1.1% to 15.3%). This scale reflected a total cost increase of 2.25% and was funded by the School Board for FY03-04.

The Salary Committee agreed that the beginning teacher salary needed to be increased to $32,000 for FY04-05 based on the fact that Roanoke County is 4^th out of 5 local school districts in starting teacher salary. The committee requested that the step increases be larger for years 5, 10, and 15 to move the scale closer to the step 20 bubble. A scale was designed that continued to have flat $450 differences in steps for all steps other than 5, 10, and 15. These steps were increased by $500. Again, step 20 was frozen at $45,500 resulting in a step difference of $5,000 (compared to $5,950 the previous year). All teachers at the top of the scale were given a $600 increase. The Committee agreed that the teachers over the top of scale should receive roughly 50% of the percent increase approved by the School Board. The "tier" steps continue to exist as these employees over the top of scale were benefited by the rolling of the longevity into the base salary. The "tier" steps are as follows:

21 years ---- $46,100

22 – 26 years ---- $46,600

27 – 31 years ---- $47,400

32 or more years ---- $48,400

The actual employee increases from the previous year scale to the next step on this scale ranged from $600 to $5,950 or (1.3% to 15.0%). However, other than step 20 ($5,950 increase) and the employees above step 20 ($600), all teachers on the scale receive increases ranging from $1,250 to $1,400. This scale continues to equalize the step differentials and employee raises. The estimated cost of this scale is 3.11% and is pending Salary Committee approval and subsequent School Board consideration.

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On May 26, 2004, the School Board approved a budget for FY04-05 that included funding for an average 3.5% salary increase in the teacher scale. The original scale recommended by the Committee provided for a 3.11% increase. These additional funds were added to that scale as follows:

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