FAYETTE COUNTY: Teachers asked to ‘donate’ their raises

The cash-strapped Fayette County school system is asking its teachers to voluntarily return the pay raises they received last spring.

School board members say if the county’s teachers would return their 2.5 percent raises, it could keep the 24,000-student system afloat. Should they all return the raises, it would add about $4 million to the system’s coffers.

In Monday night’s meeting, board members decided they had nothing to lose by writing a letter to Fayette’s roughly 1,800 contracted teachers asking them to voluntarily “make a donation” to the system’s financial well-being.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” said board member Dr. Bob Todd said of the unorthodox request.

The board’s move highlights financial difficulties facing the Fayette County school system in the wake of unexpected state budget cuts and diminished property tax revenues in a struggling economy.

No decision on the budget was made Monday, but the raise refund will be discussed again when the board reconvenes on Jan. 27.

Todd and board member Marion Key sounded confident their teachers would respond positively.

Board members pointed to teachers in one Maryland school district who returned a 5 percent raise in 2008 to help their struggling school system.

The Maryland teachers, however, were represented by a union and needed only a majority of their group to pass the measure. Fayette teachers are not represented by a union.

The decision to ask teachers for the donation followed a lengthy meeting in which the board had discussed a number of other cost-saving measures, both for the current 2008-09 school year and the following one.

Those options included the furloughing of some contracted employees, such as principals, starting next month and the slashing the salaries for pre-kindergarten para-professioonal teachers, all in the hopes of avoiding layoffs.

Other measures on the table include a reduction in county contributions to employee life and long-term disability insurance plans and a possible reduction of the 180-day school year.

Whatever budget cutback the board chooses, it will be painful.

“I think it’d be silly if we didn’t ask the question,” board member Janet Smola said.