New Britain herald., 1925-11-14
TEACHERS DENIED
 SALARY INCREASES
School Board Adopts Adverse Report on Instructors Petition

An adverse report Of the salary committee on the proposed sched. ule for an automatic increase every year Of teachers pay was accepted at the meeting Of tn school board yes terday afternoon.
 The item was disposed O. with lit- tle comment from the board.
 Following is the report Of the committee read by President r. r. King, of the school board
 The salary committee, 10 whom vas referred the petition by Beatrice F., Neal, Edward E. Weeks and Anne Pomeroy requesting the adopt lon of new schedule Of teachers salaries, has held three meetings to consider the question, one Of which was in conjunction with committee by the Teachers council.
 We have gone Into the matter very carefully and find that the pro- posed schedule would involve an in- crease in salary item of the school budget of approximately s160,0o0 for the year l926-l927.
 The schedule is a single sched- ule providing the same salaries for men and women.
 Tt would involve in the elemen- tary grades an increase of $150 per year the tenth year; For the Junior high school women. an increase of from S400 the first year to S750 the 10th year. and for Senior High school men an increase of $50 the the second year, s200 the 10th year.
 Your committee feels that even with the most economical manage ment, the growing needs of the schools require a very heavy de- mand upon the taxpayers and it would be most inopportune to make such a radical increase in the cost of operation at this time.
 The schedules in use in ouI schools are, generally speaking, ir line with those for cities of about our size in this neighborhood.
 There are some features of oul l present schedule which could be ! changed with advantage to tht schools and these will receive fur. | ther consideration on the part of tho committee. but we feel compelled tc report unfavorably upon the present petition and would recon. mend that tho proposed schedule bt not adopted"
 A petition signed by Beatrice E Neal. Edward E. Weeks, and Anne Pomeroy, committee representing the teachers, was presented to tn, school board sometime ago.
 Teachers Eplain Reasons
 In it's petition the teachers com mittee compared the salaries paid il other cities with those paid here basing its conclusions on statistic! gathered from 1887 cities and towns with populations ranging from g. 800 to more than 100000. The com mittee that Many of the smaller localities around New Britain have as high and in some instances { higher maXima than New Britain and that cities nearer the size anC wealth Of New Britain have in every instance a higher maximum.
 "The cities in Rhode Island anG 1 through q period of financial de- precision, in the past four years, such as Nov Britain has never expert. cnced since it became q city 0: any considerab ble size. This was due tC the terrible dcprss ssion in the cotton wooIon. and shoe industries.
 These cities, however, have main tamcd q very crrditable schedul' through this period of time, al though they have been unable t' keep in line with the cities Of west orn Connecticut, New York, Ney J"rsey and other localities.
 "Accorjing 10 statistics obtalnc' by th4 National Education Associa ion there have hoen two decide increases in teachers salaries, i general throughout the Unite States since l92p."
 Commenting on the situation her th" petition said:
 New Britain changed her sched u'c to meet very urgent need i 1920 and has not changed the gen cral schedule since that time al though inc salaries of some Of th administrative officers and depart mental heads have been change since then. After careful study ( other schedules, of our own preset >rhodu!n. O. the need Of q change i our present srhe1 1,Ir. and Of th ability Of N"W Britain 'o meet 'h obligations brought about by sue