Published: June 14, 2008 11:41 pm         

WVEA chief wants salary improvements

Improving teacher salaries so the state can remain competitive by attracting and retaining qualified educators is a major goal of new West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee.

A veteran educator at both the elementary and high school levels, Lee officially assumed his duties this weekend as head of the 14,000-member organization.

“We’re losing more and more teachers to surrounding states,” Lee said in an interview just days before he officially succeeded Charlie DeLauder as the WVEA chief.

“People in the border counties can drive 15 to 20 minutes and make $10,000 to $20,000 more each year. We have to get competitive with these states. We have to get to the position where our young people, No. 1, want to go into education, and two, stay in West Virginia.”

West Virginia ranks 48th in teacher pay against the other states and the District of Columbia, falling from a pinnacle of 30th in 1992. The national average salary is $50,816, based on National Education Association statistics. California leads the nation with an average annual pay of $63,640. The District of Columbia is ranked fourth with a salary of $59,000, while West Virginia is ahead of three states — Mississippi, at $40,182, and North and South Dakota, which pay $38,822 and $35,378 on average, respectively.

Two of West Virginia’s neighbors are ranked in the top 10 — Maryland, with an average salary of $56,927, and Pennsylvania, $54,970. Ohio is 14th at $51,937, and Virginia is ranked 31st, paying an average salary of $44,727. Kentucky occupies 35th place, with an average of $43,646.

Even with periodic increases since the Caperton administration, salaries simply haven’t matched the pace of other states.

“We were getting 2 to 3 percent, and surrounding states, or other states, were giving 3 to 4 percent,” Lee said.

“Even with small increases, we’re falling farther behind.”

Lee has other goals in mind as the organization gears up for the 2009 legislative session, including a drive to make sure that experienced voices are providing the needed input to solve education issues.

“I want to increase the level of respect for education,” Lee said. “Everyone thinks he’s an expert on public education.

“People tend to give their views in solving problems of education instead of seeking the solutions from the true experts, which are those of us in the field.”

Lee wants to work with legislators to shore up education’s role in the general revenue budget as well.

Just as salary rankings have slipped over the years in comparison with other states, education’s slice of the pie has shrunk correspondingly.

“We have seen that education funding has actually dropped over the last few years,” Lee said.

“We have gone from 53 percent to 47 percent of the state general revenue budget. Public education was a No. 1 priority in our Constitution when the Founding Fathers founded West Virginia.”

In these precarious times, the WVEA leader says classroom safety must always be a major concern of both his organization and public policy makers.

“Classroom discipline is always an issue,” he said. “Classroom safety is always an issue. We live in a world with crazy things happening. We want to make sure that all of our students and teachers and education employees feel safe in the classroom. The only thing they should worry about is how well they do in class.”

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Lee certainly is no stranger to the classroom, launching his career at Glenwood Elementary, where he taught six years, then moving to Princeton High, where he is an instructor in special education.

And he comes from a family that has largely been dedicated to the profession.

“My dad’s a teacher, and all my brothers are teachers,” he said. “Two of them are now principals. I went a different direction. But when my oldest daughter was born, I had the opportunity to substitute and saw that I really liked it. I went back and obtained my degree in special education and started teaching.”

A Wyoming County native, he grew up in Ikes Fork and graduated from Baileysville High School.

Lee earned a degree in accounting at Clinch Valley College and his special education certification through the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies and now is in the process of completing his master’s degree through Salem International University.

Before he was elevated to WVEA president for a term ending June 15, 2011, he was vice president three years and served a like number of years on the executive committee.

As Lee took the reins as president, a fellow southern West Virginia resident, Wayne Spangler, a teacher leader in Monroe County, moved up as vice president. Not since the days of former WVEA President Kayetta Meadows of Hinton has the southern region claimed the one and two slots of leadership.

For Lee, there has never been any doubt that education is where he wanted to invest a life.

“Absolutely, I do love it,” he said. “From the first day in the classroom, I knew it was what I was supposed to do.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com