School Board members raise their pay

The School Board voted 4-1 to give itself a 4.5 percent pay increase. Their salaries are now higher than that of some teachers.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published December 8, 2004

Members vote 4-1 to gives themselves a 4.5 percent salary increase. They now earn more than some teachers.

LAND O'LAKES - Despite objections from a parents group and a teachers union, Pasco County School Board members voted 4-1 Tuesday to give themselves a $1,487 pay raise - to $34,393 a year. That's 9 percent more than a first-year teacher earns.

"Do I feel we work as hard as a kindergarten teacher? ... No," Kathleen Wolf said before casting a vote in favor of the raise. "Do I think we work as hard as a bus driver who runs three routes a day? Maybe not."

But Wolf, a board member for 18 years, said the five-member board has experience, qualifications and work responsibilities that merit a fair rate of compensation.

Jean Larkin Weightman cast the dissenting vote, later saying that she plans to donate her raise to help teachers aides pay tuition to become credentialed teachers.

"I've taught, too," Weightman told a parent after the meeting. "The focus should be on paying teachers more."

Representatives from United School Employees of Pasco teachers union and the Pasco Parents for Quality Schools and Community urged board members to forgo the increase. The board decided not to take a raise a year ago when tight funding led them to make $10.3-million in cuts.

Amye Cox, co-chair of the parent group, said Tuesday that the public would not understand the board's decision to take a raise when schools still are forced to skimp.

"We're in a time where people are struggling to make ends meet on two salaries," she said. "We're hearing our schools are going to 10-period days and there are (other) cuts ... It sends out the wrong message."

Cox's group campaigned for the successful passage of the Penny for Pasco tax increase, 1-cent on the dollar to benefit school construction. Though the tax dollars by law cannot contribute to raises, Cox said the average taxpayer isn't going to make that distinction.

It takes some teachers nine years before they make more than $34,000 annually. Union representative Kevin Shibley said board members should consider the liabilities a teacher faces each day in comparison with those of a School Board member.

Board newcomer Kathryn Starkey said she wanted to vote for an increase smaller than the 4.5 percent they ended up taking, but got tripped up on the procedural aspects of amending a motion.

"I was for a raise, but I didn't want it to be that amount," she said. She would have rather vote on something less than the 4.2 percent average raise teachers received. Like Weightman, Starkey said she plans to contribute a portion of her School Board salary back to the district, but declined immediately to say how much.

This is the third year Florida's school boards have been saddled with the task of approving their own salaries. In a move board members widely interpreted as political punishment, the Legislature removed school boards from the list of constitutional officers whose salaries are set by the state: sheriffs, county commissioners, tax collectors and more.

Chairman Marge Whaley called the rule "extremely punitive."

IN OTHER NEWS: The School Board's denial of an application to open the New Port Richey 21st Century Charter School in 2006 is being appealed, superintendent Heather Fiorentino said Tuesday. The brainchild of Chasco Middle School teacher Lee Dury, the school application was rejected in October on grounds that it did not meet state legal requirements requirements in the areas of reading and class-size reduction.

[Last modified December 7, 2004, 23:48:19]