Wednesday, December 10, 2003
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Wednesday, December 10, 2003 |
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For 20 Fayette teachers, pay raises will come with National Certification By J. FRANK LYNCH Twenty Fayette County teachers earned their profession’s highest credential in 2003, bringing to 52 the number of local educators who have successfully completed the rigorous but voluntary process established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Teachers celebrate more than just the feeling of accomplishment, however: The National Certification is worth a sizable increase in their paychecks, bonuses that translate into more comfortable pension plans come retirement time. During the 2000 legislative session, Georgia lawmakers raised the salary bonus for teachers earning National Certification from 5 percent of annual salary to 10 percent. The state’s teacher salary structure ensures that tenured teachers who remain in good standing will take that bonus all the way to retirement, which in Georgia is available after 30 years of service. And while that is great news for the teachers, it also means mandatory pay raises for each of them, promised increases that are breaking the back of Georgia’s budget writers, who are passing the buck to the local systems by cutting funding in other areas. Many of the teachers going for the credential have years of experience already, meaning the raises are based on salaries already near the top of the pay-scale. About 10 percent of the pay increase comes from local sources, said Fayette County Schools spokeswoman Melinda Berry-Dreisbach. The rest is funded by the state, and increased salaries to the hundreds of Georgia teachers who qualified for the perk in 2002 was among the major factors threatening this year’s education budget. According to the NBPTS, the Fayette teachers are among more than 8,195 elementary and secondary educators nationwide who got national certification this year. It is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes from one to three years to complete. It is designed to measure what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do in the classroom. The 20 Fayette teachers who successfully completed their National Boards in 2003 and their schools are: • Fayette County High: Jillian Bowen, Jan Daniel, Janice Folsom, Janis Green, Jill Joiner, Ashley Lawson, Peggy Paladino. • Sandy Creek High: Rosemary Barnes, Linda Ostrenko. • J.C. Booth Middle: Mary Ann Browning, Nancy Graham. • Rising Starr Middle: Margaret Counts. • Whitewater Middle: Susan Bright, Jill Collins, Donna New, Melissa Raymer. • Braelinn Elementary: Mary Pegues. • Brooks Elementary: Susan Duke. • Huddleston Elementary: Lori Fulton. • Peeples Elementary: Vicki Green.
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