The talk is due to a potential budget cut for the 2008-2009 school year. If the school board does approve the proposed $5 million budget cut for next year, teachers might be the most affected. Community members and teachers packed the meeting Monday to hear about the fiscal budget.

The Columbia Community Teachers Association presented a list of recommendations to the board concerning teacher salaries, which include: funding the salary schedule should be an annual budget priority, a multi-year compensation strategy should be used to bring salaries up to a competitive level and the board should continue to maintain employee benefits at the current or better level for full-time employees.

"Historically Columbia Public Schools has underestimated revenues and overestimated budget expenditures," said teacher Doloris Bates-Smith. "That's resulted in annual additions to the reserves, and it's disheartening to teachers when the reserves are greater than anticipated and teachers are not competitively compensated."

Right now, Columbia teachers rank 43rd in the state in terms of salary. No decisions were made tonight, but it is likely that decisions will be made later this month.