Carter County Schools join other districts seeking base pay increase for teachers
Published 9:10 pm Thursday, January 20, 2022
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The Carter County Board of Education met in their regularly scheduled January meeting on Thursday.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Left to right - Katlyn Smith (Hampton), Alana Parsons (Unaka), Sadie Shoun (Unaka) and Anslie Pinkston (Happy Valley) were recognized for passing the CTE Pharmacy Tech test.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
Carter County School Board members are being encouraged to use any connection with state representatives and senators to reach out and urge the starting base pay for teachers be moved to at least $48,000.
This came after a regional superintendent’s meeting, according to Director of Schools Dr. Tracy McAbee.
“One thing that we are trying to get out of our subcommittees is that since Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee raised base pay salaries for prison guards to $44,000 that the teachers deserve to have their base salary moved to $44,000 so the raises will be across the board,” said McAbee.
The base salary for teachers is currently $38,000.
McAbee also told the board that COVID-19 numbers are trending upward and several teachers have been out but that all the classes had been covered.
“The consensus across the Northeast Region is as long as classes are covered, then school can remain open,” said McAbee.
Teachers of the Year for Carter County were announced by McAbee as well on Thursday night. Those include the following:
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Central Elementary – Robin Taylor and Kimberly Jacobs.
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Unaka High School – Amy Hewitt.
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Happy Valley Elementary – Kim Hughes.
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Valley Forge – Richard Thomas.
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Hampton High School – Andrew Burks.
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Cloudland Elementary – Ashlynn Miller and Stacy Triplett.
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Happy Valley Middle School – Matt Wilson.
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Keenburg Elementary – Teresa Cole and Lori Langlois.
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Hunter Elementary – Lisa Richardson and Amy Crowe.
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Unaka Elementary – Tiffany Revis and Nikki Collins.
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Hampton Elementary – Mitchell Morton and Nancy Chambers.
From those teachers, three were chosen to advance to represent the district this year and those were Tiffany Revis, Stacy Triplett, and Amy Hewitt.
Prior to the business portion of the meeting, eleven Carter County CTE students that participated in the Pharmacy Technician class and achieved a 100% pass rate on the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam were recognized.
They were Katlyn Smith (Hampton), Grace Agan (Unaka), Alana Parsons (Unaka), Sadie Shoun (Unaka), Madison Gibbs (Cloudland), Natalie Stout (Unaka), Kyla DeYoung (Cloudland), Anslie Pinkston (Happy Valley), Makenzie Keller (Happy Valley), Annie Townsend (Unaka), Kiki Forney (Unaka).
The February workshop will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2022, and the regularly-scheduled meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2022.
