Madison City Schools Superintendent Ed Nichols received thunderous applause at the State of the Schools breakfast last week at the Westin when he announced new teachers in his district were going to receive a pay raise, a $10,000 relocation fee and a $3,000 signing bonus next year.

Just before the applause died down, he announced “I’m sorry, that’s not us. That’s Mazda Toyota.”

The applause turned into laughter when he made the reference to the hiring incentives of the automaker just a few miles down the from his schools.

Only, it wasn’t a laughing matter for Nichols.

“What I’m going to give you is the starting teacher pay of $43,000 after a four-year degree, 25 third graders in your classroom, 18 minutes of going to the bathroom during the day, two extra unpaid hours after school that equals 10 more weeks of unpaid work, just in case you think they don’t work in the summer,” he said.

“And you wonder why we don’t have more teachers apply,” Nichols said of filling teacher positions for the nearly 13,000-student school district, one of the fastest growing and top performing districts in Alabama.