Highland School Board considers teaching assistant pay scale

Monterey, Va. – The Highland County School Board is considering a proposal for a Teaching Assistant salary scale. The school has not previously had a School Board approved salary scale for staff members in those positions. Superintendent Crawford has met with school staff members recently to develop a salary scale proposal.

Highland County Education Association council member Susan Glendinning participated in that meeting and reported to the School Board at its regular meeting this week.

“The HCEA wants to thank you for considering our proposal for a Teaching Assistant salary scale,” said Mrs. Glendinning. “You have received a packet with information we hope is helpful, but we are available to answer any questions you may have now or at a later time. Please understand as you study this 2010-2011 printed scale that the Assistants are not being paid at the level of their experience. For example, even now, an Assistant with 11 years experience is being paid for 9 years on this 2010-11 scale. We appreciate the opportunity to work with Highland County students. We hope you will appreciate the professional pride we have in our role as educators and that you will adopt the proposed scale. Thank you.”

Mrs. Glendinning goes on to discuss the reasons why adopting a Teaching Assistant salary scale is desirable at this time.

“In the opening memo we have listed the purposes for developing the pay scale – to provide a consistent and equitable scale for the Teaching Assistants, to provide a consistent salary scale for budgeting, to create a scale that extends beyond seventeen years, and to provide a written salary scale for the public and staff,” said Mrs. Glendinning.

Superintendent Crawford speaks in support of the salary scale proposal and provides a timetable for the process.

“My recommendation would be that we take the scale, that we study the scale, one, and two that we put together an implementation plan for the scale, and then three, after the implementation plan for the scale has been put in place that we bring the plan back, then, at that point, for any revisions and approval,” said Dr. Crawford. “So I see this as a three or four month process. I do think that the proposal in front of you is a good one, because it takes into consideration a lot of information.”

Superintendent Crawford continues with further details of the process.
“When you look at what you see on these sheets for Bath (County) and Augusta (County), and you look at what the committee is proposing, we are well within range of what are competitors are doing, so that is a good start,” said Dr. Crawford. “Then the second question, that Mr. Neil asked is the biggest question – what is this going to cost? And then in the implementation plan we say this is going to cost $10,000 or $20,000, here’s how we’re going to do that – here’s where the funds are going to come from for us to do that.”

In other business, the School Board approved a request from George Deem, President of the Highland County Recreation Commission, to hold a professional wrestling event in the High School gymnasium in late October of this year. Stay tuned next week for more news from the Highland County School Board meeting.