CAPITOL TRIP: On March 5, 1968, concern over teacher’s salaries reached a peak.

“Starting salaries for Bradford’s teachers are below the $5,700 minimum demanded by Pennsylvania State Education Assn. in its march on Harrisburg Monday, but above much of the state average, it was disclosed in an Era survey Monday night,” read the Era at the time.

Teachers in Bradford were starting out at $5,300 and classroom teachers could have risen to around $9,000 over seven to 10 years roughly, depending on the degree held by the teacher.

They had been working a 37 ½ hour work week, not including extra curricular activities, for which they were being paid and were considered optional.

Their pay was spread over a 12-month period, although they worked nine months.

Around 20,000 public school teachers had met in Harrisburg to demand higher salaries and more state money for local education.

“A total of 14 men and 11 women teachers from the Bradford Area Schools plan to leave at 5 a.m. today by bus for the statewide teacher demonstrations at Harrisburg, scheduled for this afternoon on the steps of the Capitol building,” read the Era on March 4.

Classes continued as usual in the Bradford Area, however, with administrators and substitute teachers taking the place of the 25 teachers.

The Era stated that more than 300 delegates from the four-county Bradford area, which includes McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter County, would attend the protest group.

“The primary purpose of our trip is to demand an accounting of the uses made of the five per cent state sales tax (not six per cent) which legislators had promised us five years ago, would be earmarked for education,” said William Kuhn, chairman of the Cameron County High School Teachers’ Association.