As the Superintendent and School board develop the budget plan for the 2017-18 school year, a group of teachers is proposing a 5% pay raise. The Teacher Advocacy Group of Albemarle (TAG) is currently pushing for this raise that they believe the teachers deserve.

People become teachers for many reasons, from a desire to inspire a love of learning to the appeal of a summer vacation. However, as the costs for living and health care have dramatically increased, there hasn’t been an equivalent raise.

Despite the increase in the gross salary for teachers, the net salary hasn’t changed since 2011. When taking inflation into account, “there has been a net loss of real dollars,” according to the TAG website. This means that teachers are being asked to still maintain a high standard for less money.

They hope to cause the School Board and Board of Supervisors to make decisions that take into account the wishes of teachers, as stated on the TAG website. In such a large county, it is hard to be recognized by the School Board, but TAG seeks to give teachers a voice.

“The biggest thing we want to accomplish is that teachers are comfortable expressing their opinions,” Economics instructor Ian Lyons said. “You feel like if you just speak individually then it’s really hard to get noticed.”

Though TAG is made up of teachers, any students or parents can support the group by emailing supervisors and showing appreciation for all that they do. As a large part of TAG’s impact is the amount of people involved, the more people that show the school how much they feel this raise is deserved, the more of an impact they make.

“Their voices might actually be heard louder than teacher’s voices,” Clay said.

Superintendent Dr. Pam Moran released a budget request for 2017-18 on Jan. 19. She proposed a 2% salary increase teachers.