Murphy – Educators honored three Cherokee County commissioners last week for their support in improving public education.
County Commissioners Dan Eichenbaum, Randy Phillips and Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland were specifically recognized for “stepping out of their comfort zone” to vote in favor of providing teachers a 3 percent salary supplement in the upcoming fiscal year budget. Commissioners Jan Griggs and Cal Stiles opposed the supplement when voted on May 26.
“This is a supplement that we have consistently put on the budget every single year that I’ve been a superintendent,” Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Jeana Conley said, adding that commissioners have repeatedly denied the request due to monetary constraints. “This year, three commissioners said, ‘We’ve got to slice the pie big enough to keep our educators.’ ”
Cherokee and Swain are the only counties in North Carolina that did not provide their school districts with a salary supplement in the 2020-21 school year, according to Department of Public Instruction data available online. While majority of counties provided salary supplements to both principals and teachers, a few only gave supplements to one or the other.
According to research by the National Education Association, the state of North Carolina ranked 33rd in teacher pay with an average teacher salary of $54,150 for the 2019-20 school year. However, some North Carolina educators argue that salary information reported to the NEA errantly includes all sources of funding for teacher pay, including local supplements paid by counties and cities, thereby artificially inflating salaries by more than $4,500.
Educators say the supplement from local tax dollars has become a crucial tool for school districts to recruit and retain employees.
“We are hemorrhaging good teachers across the line to Georgia and Tennessee,” Conley said.
In fact, former Murphy football defensive coordinator and physical education teacher Thomas Nelson implied that salary played a role in his decision to take a job as co-athletic director at Union County High School in Blairsville, Ga., this fall.
“Just the amount of how much things cost and things like that, it just made it better for the family for me to make this move right now,” Nelson told the Cherokee Scout for a report in the May 26 edition.
Conley said the situation has been exacerbated by decisions made in Raleigh.
“Now, if you come into our profession in North Carolina, you no longer get to retire with health benefits,” she said. “There are very few incentives in our state encouraging people to go into teaching.”
The three aforementioned commissioners were honored by the N.C. Association of Educators, which concluded a statewide tour with a stop at Murphy High School on June 9. The “We Heart Public Schools’’ tour stopped in each of the state’s 100 counties to talk about the importance of public education.
The NCAE and Cherokee County Association of Educators also honored the following educators and board of education members as “lovable local leaders:” Chad Brooks, Conley, Cynthia Postell, Katelyn Truett, Monica Wayman, Paul Wilson, Keesha Curtis, James Ellis, Jeff Martin, Arnold Mathews, Joey Shore, Jeff Tatham and Joe Wood.