This week, 30 years ago, teachers addressed the School Board pleading that their salaries at least keep up with inflation, which in 1980 was a staggering 14 percent. At the time, a starting teacher in Chesterfield County was paid $10,000 annually, and a seasoned educator earned $16,500. Chesterfield Education Association President Alan Loeffler, a teacher at Enon Elementary School, said the salary scale was designed for women and was low because it was thought of as simply a supplement to a husband’s salary.

The Chesterfield News-Journal reported that the proposed increase would cost the county about $4 million. School Board Vice Chairman G.R. Partin said, “Ours is not the policy to work you to death or starve you to death … our is also not the policy to wreck Chesterfield’s financial arrangements … our policy is to work out something somewhere between those two extremes.”