Starting, substitute teacher salaries to remain the same

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Provisional teachers will earn $38,600, teachers with a bachelor's degree will earn $44,600 and teachers with a master's degree will earn $47,600.

Substitute teacher compensation will also remain unchanged with non-degreed personnel earning $70 per day, degreed personnel earning $80 per day and long-term substitutes earning $115 per day.

Both decisions were attributed to the economy and Superintendent of Schools Jack Smith additionally pointed out that the compensation for substitute teachers were raised last year.

"We fell under the [Washington D.C.-Metropolitan] area and we wanted to stay competitive," he said.

Pandemic flu plan presented

Director of Student Services Kim Roof, Executive Director of School Operations Deborah Pulley and Supervisor of Health Donna Nichols unveiled a Pandemic Flu plan at Thursday's Calvert County Board of Education Meeting.

The plan involves numerous directors throughout the school system being in direct contact with the Calvert County Health Department and the Maryland State Police and taking various steps ranging from mitigation and prevention to ongoing surveillance and awareness to potential school closure.

"This is a working document … a lot of it depends on the situation as it presents itself," Roof said. "These are the stages of the plan that we would work from."

Later on Thursday it was announced in a press release from Smith that there were two confirmed cases of the swine flu or H1N1 virus at Patuxent High School.

"Both students have recovered but will not attend school for the remainder of the school year," the release stated.

The last day of school is June 12.

The release said that Patuxent High School will not be closed. Centers for Disease Control has not been recommending school closure in recent weeks.

"We are asking parents to remain alert to possible signs of the flu in their children," said Smith, in the release.

Lunch prices raised

Due to declining cafeteria revenue, Supervisor of Food Services Donald Knode recommended that lunch prices be raised by $0.15 per meal in both elementary and secondary schools. Breakfast prices, Knode suggested, remain the same. This would result in lunch costing $2.25 per meal in elementary schools and $2.40 per meal in secondary schools.

Knode said that the declining cafeteria revenues can be attributed to the economy, decreased in enrollment within the school system and the one-hour alternative lunch program in Calvert and Patuxent high schools. Huntingtown and Northern high schools will also be starting a trial run at this program next year.

Knode also pointed out that school systems raising meal costs is a nationwide trend to make up for lost revenues. The board will vote on his recommendation at its meeting on May 11.

Parent volunteers lauded

At Thursday's board of education meeting, Parent Volunteers of the Year from each school were recognized by an administrator from each school, many of whom joked that they hope said parents continue to volunteer at their school even once their children have left.

Board President Eugene Karol particularly praised the parents honored saying, "Next to the kids, the parents are the most important part of the school system."

The parents recognized included: Robbin Hall; Tina Carroll; Dana Shepherd; Patty Fiegel; Joyce Murphy; Cindy Rerig; Ann Marie Smith; Teresa Richards; Janet Cratty; Stephanie Basham; Diane Stearns; Mr. and Mrs. Wally Weaver; Sherry Adams, Jeannette Seidenstricker; Michelle Boyer; Celeste Fort; Tara Reisinger; Linda Ward; Kelley Hall; Deanna Shirley; Jerry and Tammy Beardmore; Veronica Balazs; and Dorinda Rice.

Three employees promoted

At the end of Thursday's meeting school system employees Elizabeth Gebelein, Yovanda Kolo and Nancy Miller all received promotions which will be affective on July 1.

As the current Mount Harmony Elementary School vice principal, Gebelein will become principal once current principal Tony Navarro begins a new position at the Calvert Career Center. Miller, the current acting principal at Windy Hill Middle School will become principal after having to suddenly fill in this year.

And former Huntingtown High School vice principal Yovanda Kolo was promoted to become Secondary Science Supervisor, a position she won after Smith said she presented him with a 30-60-90 day plan at her interview.

Smith also said that this is likely to be the last round of promotions for a while.

lbuck@somdews.com