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Isle of Wight County Schools’ most experienced educators will earn at least 1.4% more than their counterparts in Newport News under a new 35-step pay scale the School Board adopted on March 14.

The new $49,980 starting salary for entry-level teachers, however, is still 2% to 5% less than what Newport News, Surry and Suffolk pay their first-year peers.

IWCS teachers with 35 or more years in the profession earn a minimum $84,817 annually under the new scale. Newport News, by comparison, uses a 31-step scale that sets the maximum base salary for a teacher without a graduate degree at $83,630. Surry, which uses a 29-step scale, peaks at $77,332, while Suffolk’s 34-step scale pays $86,177.

Isle of Wight also offers a higher bonus, at $6,000, than Suffolk or Surry for teachers who hold a doctoral degree.

The new IWCS pay scale incorporates the 2% school employee raises that took effect Jan. 1.

Virginia’s General Assembly in a special September session passed legislation allocating $54.5 million in state funds to give public school employees a 2% raise on top of the 5% state-required raises that took effect in July for a total 7% increase this school year.    

The School Board voted to accept its $312,221 share of the state funding in November, and in December, county supervisors voted to approve a $475,000 local match.