Connelly: Schools are losing staff over low salaries
Published on August 10th, 2005
Are Stoneham teachers under paid?
The recent departure of four teachers in search of higher paying jobs in surrounding communities has the school administration questioning just that.
During his personnel update to the School Committee last week, School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly advised that several surrounding communities, including Burlington, Charlestown and Wilmington have, in the past several weeks, lured four Stoneham teachers to their school systems with the promise of more money.
"I hope this trend of losing some very respected, high quality teachers to other school systems just because of salaries doesn't continue. It's something we really have to address.'
While the number of vacancies in Stoneham's relatively small school system is high this summer, factors other than salaries have also been cited. Connelly reported that positions have opened up for a variety of reasons including six retirements, three maternity leaves, four promotions, and nine reassignments within the system, and his staff is working feverishly to address those.
"We're moving forward but we have a number of vacancies and it's almost August," Connelly said at the July 28 meeting.
But those who left for higher paying jobs have raised a red flag.
The town of Reading has recently completed negotiations with its teachers, and according to Connelly, teaching salaries at each step including starting and ending salaries are about $4,000 to $5,000 higher than Stoneham salaries.
In addition, both Connelly and Assistant Superintendent Joseph Casey have had recent discussions with one of Stoneham's new hires who hails from the Wakefield school system.
"We were very surprised to discover that in Wakefield, a person at the same step was making $5,000 more than a teacher in Stoneham," Connelly said.
Stoneham is expected to enter into negotiations with school personnel this year, which might prove to be difficult considering Stoneham is now up against some very competitive salaries in surrounding communities.
"We're very excited about the people we've hired. We do have a positive work environment in Stoneham. That's one of our selling points. But salaries could be a developing issue."
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