To the editor:

On Aug. 22, the Lawrence school board passed the largest tax increase in six years. The school board said that the increase would cover salaries, technology improvements and other benefits to students. This tax increase would bring in an additional $6.5 million to the district.

To date, the only salary increases that have been approved by the board were to cover the district administrators. The board spent about $277,000 to increase each administrator’s salary by at least 5 percent. Some administrators were given a 12 percent increase, and the superintendents’ salary increase has not been decided upon. Also keep in mind that the district is currently in negotiations with the teachers of the district.

The LEA negotiating team schedule increases the base salary to $29,975 up from the current $26,825. Although the district’s counterproposal is closer in the base salary numbers, the district is still a long way from providing the teachers in Lawrence a competitive salary. For instance, the base salary in Olathe is currently $33,000. The Lawrence district is also a long way from providing a competitive salary for teachers with master’s degrees and doctoral degrees.

Simply adding $2,600 to each teacher’s salary is not going to achieve the kind of results that the teachers in Lawrence deserve. We have been told for too long that they couldn’t give us a proper pay increase because they didn’t have enough money, now they have the money, and we are still negotiating for our increase.

Sally Landoll,

Oskaloosa