Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 4 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
compared to the national, state and local
averages. The average salary for a teacher in Rappahannock, according to the graph presented by Bloss, is $15,509 which is below all of the other averages. Bloss said that the data for all of the charts was provided by the Virginia Education Association.
Average teacher salaries among the surrounding counties were also compared to Rappahannock’s average. Rappahannock’s average minimum salary of $12,540 and average maximum salary for a teacher of $18,308 are both lower than the minimum and maximum averages in Fauquier, Culpeper, Warren, Page and Madison Counties.
“We agreed that we need to be brought up to the average of surrounding counties,” said Bloss. “Which means bringing us up to $13,498 for a starting salary for this year, and then of course Governor Robb is requesting that all teachers get a 10 per cent salary increase which all of the surrounding counties will be requesting so to maintain that average we will have to increase that by another 10 per cent.”
Those increases would make the beginning salary for a teacher in Rappahannock $14,848, and the average maximum salary would be $23,828. “It is time that Rappahannock County catches up on the neglect it has given teachers’ salaries over the years, and catch up to at least an average standard,” Bloss said. “We know, we feel the neglect every day in trying to live on shoestring budgets.”
Bloss presented information in support of the view that Rappahannock County is able to pay more for education than it currently does. In an index of local ability to pay in the area, Rappahannock County ranked above the other five surrounding counties. By comparison, a graph of the same counties’ effort to pay for education placed Rappahannock at the bottom.
Another graph showed the 1982 real estate tax on an $80,000 home in Rappahannock and surrounding counties. Rappahannock was again at the bottom of the graph presented by Bloss. “Can Rappahannock County afford to raise real estate taxes-I think so,” said Bloss. “How much longer can the rich landowner hide behind the poor in this county-the poor probably don’t own any land anyhow. The only hope for the poor is to better themselves through education, yet are they to be denied that?”
Bloss asked the board to consider all of the information, and defend the salary increase and fringe benefit re
86.6%