"The Albemarle County School Board discussed a new county employee “living wage” and potential teacher raises at its Thursday meeting.

In the next fiscal year, the county may offer a “living wage” that is higher than the originally planned $9.75 an hour, two board members said.

School Board members Brian Wheeler and Jon Stokes were part of a joint committee with members of the county Board of Supervisors that examined the “living wage” as it relates to the area’s cost of living.

Wheeler said the committee arrived at $11.07 an hour as a number that the two boards will consider at their Feb. 14 joint meeting.

Stokes was hesitant to confirm Wheeler’s figure, but he did say the committee’s work resulted in a higher number.

“The $9.75 [an hour] is a placeholder for the number coming out of the joint meeting, and the committee’s number - I don’t know if it’s $11 [an hour] - is higher than $9.75,” Stokes said.

Increasing the school division’s lowest wage of $8.81 an hour to $9.75 would add $707,685 to its budget proposal.

“So to increase the wage 94 cents an hour, it’s costing us $707,000,” Board Chairwoman Sue Friedman said.

Jackson Zimmerman, Albemarle schools director of fiscal services, told the board that Superintendent Pamela Moran’s budget proposal takes “significant steps” in increasing teachers’ salaries.

A county teacher with no experience and a bachelor’s degree would make $40,265 a year, according to the proposal. Currently, teachers in this category make $37,695. According to the Charlottesville school division’s budget proposal, it would pay such a teacher $38,730 a year.

County teachers with 20 years experience and a bachelor’s degree would make $52,923 a year, according to the proposal, a $2,161 increase from this school year.

The budget proposal includes an overall average increase in teachers’ salary of 6 percent, but this rise would vary depending on experience.

The division based its proposed pay increase on market data, drawn from such counties as Loudoun and Prince William.

In addressing the overall increase within the context of the division’s market, Zimmerman said: “I don’t know of any other division that is in that position at this point.”" (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, January 26, 2007)