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CHAPEL HILL - CARRBORO CITY SCHOOLS <br />Lincoln Center, Merritt Mill Road <br />Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516 <br />Telephone: (919) 967 -8211 <br />Neil G. Pedersen Ann Hart, Assistant Superintendent <br />Superintendent , for Instructional Services <br />Chester Preyar, Assistant Superintendent <br />for Support Services <br />TO: Board of Education ; <br />FROM: Neil G. Pedersed <br />Superintendent <br />RE: Options for Revising the Local Teacher Supplement Schedule <br />DATE: February 2, 1998 <br />The Teacher Local Supplement Advisory Committee was convened last Spring and <br />continued its work through January. It met eight times as an entire committee and also <br />formed five subcommittees to investigate various options. The twenty-two member <br />Advisory Committee included fifteen teachers who were selected based on their <br />membership on the PPPC and the Superintendent's Advisory Committee and to ensure a <br />diversity of experience levels and at least one teacher from each school. Committee <br />members are commended for their active participation and their ability to reach consensus. <br />The accompanying report describes the four options that the Committee developed <br />and shared with their colleagues. I believe that all of them are attractive and would improve <br />our capacity to recruit and retain the best teachers. Unfortunately, they are all relatively <br />expensive to implement, especially in light of the estimated $600,000 - $700,000 of local <br />money that will be needed to implement the second year of the Excellent Schools Act. <br />Depending on the option preferred, the Board might want to consider a strategy that would <br />phase in the changes. Option C had the greatest support among teachers because it retained <br />the 25 percent maximum supplement and significantly increased the supplement for <br />teachers with less than 15 years of experience. <br />Regardless of which option is selected, I strongly believe that teachers in this <br />school district should be the highest paid in the state. The cost of living rate is the highest <br />in the state; student achievement, overall, is the highest in the state; and I don't believe that <br />any other community expects more of its teachers. They deserve to be compensated <br />accordingly. <br />The Committee made other recommendations that I support. It recommends that if <br />another supplement schedule is selected, all currently employed teachers be given the <br />option to remain under the current supplement schedule. It also recommends modifications <br />to the ten -year cap that has been placed on the number of years that newly employed <br />teachers can receive credit for placement on the local supplement schedule. The alternative <br />that is recommended is to lift the cap after a teacher successfully completes four years in <br />our district and then to give the teacher credit for all of her years of teaching experience <br />when determining her local supplement. Finally, the Committee recommended several <br />