The teacher raise proposal was simple, 2.5 percent from the county, 2.5 percent from the state. After his massive tax hike was turned down, Superintendent Johnson dropped the county match in favor of more support staff. Fine; that's his prerogative, and a 5 percent raise on top of step raises is unheard of in the private sector anyway.
Tucker McClendon has now proposed misappropriating the state's 2.5 percent for even more support staff positions. How much clearer can he be that he values the APEX plan and UnifiEd's opinion more than the teachers he is responsible for?
Even the tax-hawk conservatives among us agree that teachers around here deserve more than a goose egg, especially when the state is paying. Thanks to administrative inaction on discipline, our schools are practically war zones; teacher "combat pay" should come before social engineering projects.
Apparently Mr. McClendon disagrees. He values our teachers so little that he is willing to actually divert state funds intended for them to UnifiEd's "equity" projects. What's equitable about that?
Charles McCullough