Anne Arundel County school officials and the local teachers? union said a 6 percent pay raise kept more teachers from leaving or retiring, and helped recruit new employees before the start of the school year.
“It?s like we?re in utopia compared to last year,” said Vanessa Bass, senior manager of the school system?s recruitment and staffing for Anne Arundel County Schools.
She said a mix of retirements and resignations created 435 vacancies for the 2006-07 school year, of which 337 have been filled to date. In 2005, Anne Arundel hired 912 new teachers.
Bass said recruitment of math and science teachers was up this year compared to last year, but special education teachers remained the hardest positions to fill. She could not provide specific data.
The Anne Arundel County School Board and the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County negotiated a new contract in spring 2006 that included a 6 percent salary increase for teachers for each of the next three years. This decision made the salaries comparable to neighboring counties, but Anne Arundel still pays less in starting salaries for teachers.
For the first year of the contract, about $30 million was funded in the school district?s 2007 budget. It will be up to the School Board and the new County Council to find the money to fully fund the remaining two years.
“We?re seeing the fruition of five years worth of work,” said Tim Mennuti, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County.
“Everyone who?s been involved deserves a real round of applause.”
But Mennuti said the school system still has to pare down the workload for teachers.
“We need to make sure we?re not drowning these people in work,” he said.
Anne Arundel school officials are debating changes to the district?s high school schedules to reduce the number of students who teachers instruct in one day and give them more planning time.
