Commissioners president pitched compromise offer to head of teacher’s union
The president of the Worcester County Commissioners reportedly offered a $3,000 pay raise for teachers to the teachers association president two weeks ago, provided she would end salary negotiations with the Board of Education.
Worcester County Teachers Association President Beth Shockley-Lynch turned down the offer that included identical raises for school support staff, sheriff’s deputies and other county employees on the basis that she was not authorized to agree to anything without her membership’s knowledge and consent.
Shockley-Lynch did not identify the commissioner she met with over lunch on May 23 at the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin, but this week commissioner President Ted Elder acknowledged that it was he.
The session between the two followed the commissioners’ decision days earlier to raise teachers’ pay to $2,000 instead of to the $4,000 raise agreed to during negotiations between the Worcester County Board of Education and the Worcester County Teacher’s Association.
The $4,000 raise the board agreed to was part of its multi-year plan to comply with a statewide legislative mandate, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, to set the starting salary for teachers at $60,000 by the 2027-28 school year.
Worcester’s current first-year teacher salary of $52,789 is the lowest among Maryland’s 24 public school districts.
This is so ridiculous. Can you imagine a starting salary of $60K? Puleeeze! Oh, and don’t forget that they get summer off. It’s just too much. If you want to make more money go ahead — good luck to you. But $60K as a teacher is totally too much.