5 Percent Raise Is Proposed for Teachers

Retention is a top priority for schools chief John E. Deasy. (Susan Biddle - The Washington Post)

Prince George's County teachers would receive a 5 percent raise in the next school year, and their starting salaries for the first time would exceed $40,000 under a new contract officials hope will curtail a perennial exodus of instructional talent to neighboring school systems.

The tentative one-year agreement between the Prince George's County Educators' Association and school system negotiators was announced yesterday. Union leaders endorsed the deal unanimously. It is expected to win approval from the county Board of Education as early as June 22 and ratification by the full union membership by September.

The contract, affecting about 9,000 teachers, is vital to the Washington area's third-largest school system. New schools chief John E. Deasy, who took over May 1, has made teacher recruitment and retention top priorities.

It rankles school officials and union leaders that many young teachers gain seasoning in Prince George's and then leave for Fairfax County or Montgomery County, the area's largest and second-largest systems, respectively.

"The goal here obviously is to turn that around," said Prince George's school system spokesman John White, "to where people don't want to leave -- and come here instead."

Association President Carol Kilby, who began teaching in the county in 1970, called the contract "the best one I can remember for many, many, many years. There's something for everybody."

Under terms of the agreement, posted on the association's Web site, certified teachers with a bachelor's degree would earn a minimum salary of $41,410 and a maximum of $55,379. The range for teachers holding a master's degree would be $45,393 to $76,606. The top base salary for teachers with a doctorate would be $84,813.

In the school year that just ended, the base salary for starting teachers was $39,438.

Starting teacher pay in Fairfax in the coming school year will be $42,400, according to that school system's Web site. In Montgomery, starting teachers will receive $41,758. D.C. public school teachers recently approved a contract that establishes starting pay at $42,500.

Inflation, on the rise recently, could bite sharply into salaries in a region where many teachers struggle to find affordable housing. But Prince George's teachers said they were nonetheless pleased with the outcome of negotiations in a year when many school systems are flush with new revenue from state budget surpluses.

"We're happy," said Shari Beth Sternberg, a veteran mathematics instructional specialist at Hyattsville Elementary School. "Most of us in teaching are not in it for the money. Would more be better? Yes. But I'm certainly happy that we're getting something."

The tentative agreement would sharply boost pay for those who earn certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Teachers who hold that elite credential would receive an extra $5,000 a year, up from the current county stipend of $2,000 a year. The bonus would also count for the first time toward teacher pensions.

Prince George's has about 50 board-certified teachers -- a number Deasy wants to raise significantly. Montgomery has more than 200 board-certified teachers. Anne Arundel County, with a smaller system, has 70.

A new contract should help Prince George's recruiters as they aim to fill an estimated 1,000 teaching vacancies before school resumes in August. For years, the county has sought to increase teacher retention rates.

Lewis Robinson, executive director of the educators association, said the school system has hired more than 15,000 teachers in the past 11 years, an outsized proportion of the state total of new hires. Too often, union leaders say, experienced teachers are lured away in mid-career.

"The numbers are staggering," Robinson said. "Instruction is taking a beating because of it."

Since his arrival, Deasy has said repeatedly that he wants to turn that situation around. Last month, he laid out an ambitious goal for the school system: To convince teachers and staff that "when you are hired in Prince George's County, you have arrived in the state of Maryland."