Teacher Pay Raise Proposal Reaction

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF)- After Superintendent Brian Johnson made the announcement on teacher pay raises, community leaders began chiming in with their reaction.

Thursday during a presentation, Superintendent Brian Johnson said “We’ve been watching revenues, watching our budget and looking at what we can do. We’re proud to announce that today we’re proposing to our school board a 2.5 percent salary increase that will be effective February 8th”

The superintendent’s announcement did raise eyebrows from community leaders but County Commissioner Greg Martin says he’s glad that deserving teachers are getting a pay raise without effecting the pockets of Hamilton County. “I hope that the school board can find additional resources to even do more” said Martin.

“The thing that is something that all Hamilton County citizens should be proud of is that teachers are going to be able to get this raise now and it comes without a tax increase”

He says the pay raise was made possible because of a healthy local economy. “You got more people coming here. I think it’s 30,000 new citizens. You know you got more people, more businesses. You got more of a tax base.”

School Board member Rhonda Thurman said the timing of the announcement is suspect,”If we have the money now why didn’t we have it at budget time. We should have been able to give them a raise when the budget was done. But this is the way it’s been done so many time since I’ve been on the board. It makes me furious.”

She said as a member of the board, she’s entitled to know when these decisions are made prior to it being announced. “It’s just suspect to me that we found 2 and ahalf million dollars to give two and a half percent raise right at the time the superintendent is going to get a new contract.”

The board is set to vote the proposal on February 20th. If the majority rules in favor, then the pay raise will retroactively take effective on February 8th.

The County Commissioner will not be involved in the voting process. The proposal will be decided solely by the nine board members.