Hearing From the People

School Board Report

January 31, 2008

The Roanoke County School Board met this evening for their regular monthly meeting. This was their third regular meeting this month. The big ticket item on the agenda tonight was a public budget hearing. Eight speakers addressed the Board about three different issues. Thom Ryder led off by stating the case for the RCEA salary proposal.

Next up were several speakers who petitioned for the addition of gifted resource teachers. They effectively pointed out that the current gifted resource team is stretched very thin, serving children at five or six elementary schools a piece. Between the testing requirements and the student case-load, the teachers are not able to be as effective as they desire.

The other issue brought before the Board was from parents in the Back Creek community. They were concerned at the alarming trend of higher class sizes in their school. They argued that lower pupil/teacher ratios allow for greater educational success in the classroom. They reported that many classrooms at Back Creek have 23 to 25 children in them which is unacceptable to them.

The meeting also featured a report by Central Middle School’s principal, Becky Rowe. Becky shared data with the Board about the progress students at the school are making. They Board seemed impressed.

Odds and Ends

1. $29,444.72 was the cost of peace of mind at William Byrd. That’s how much it cost for environmental testing to help identify the cause of the mysterious twitching cases back in the Fall.

2. Horace Mann has donated$2000 in order to test all of the toys in the pre-school classrooms for lead paint. More piece of mind.

3. Northside’s geothermal heating and cooling system, an environmentally friendly and highly efficient system, has netted the county a credit of $267,000 from Martin Brothers construction firm.

4. Personnel Policy 7.2 regarding Resident and Non-Resident school attendance was revised to allow grandchildren in legal custody of non-resident former Roanoke County School employees to attend RCPS schools. (Expanded the benefit previously just given to current employees.)

5. The Board approved the spending of $1,282,000 from the personnel department account for various items that were brought up at the January 2 pre-budget hearing. Included in the list is money for HVAC technician, roofing various schools (Penn Forest?) and paving projects. We’ll have a more detailed list of the exact projects when we receive the minutes from the School Board retreat from January 26. According to Penny Hodge, this money has been building in the personnel department’s account over the last few years. The money has carried over and built up to $3.4 million. Mr. Hall felt comfortable allowing the fund to be drawn down to $1.5, with $1.9 million freed up to reapportion. We will also look to the minutes to see how the other $600,000+ are being spent. (They were discussing using some for assistant principals or future elementary school renovations…not sure the final decision.)

5. Allen Journell informed the School Board that due to the reinterpretation of the bank day policy for making up school days missed due to inclement weather, beginning THIS SCHOOL YEAR, RCPS will use bank time to make up the first three missed school days. That means that as of this moment, no matter what happens on Friday, we will have NO days to make-up.

Text of the RCEA Comments to the School Board January 31,2008

RCEA Salary Proposal

These are difficult economic times. Prices of food and energy are rising. Employees are picking up more of the health insurance co-pay. It’s getting more and more difficult to live within today’s economy.

In the last few years, raises for teachers have varied from slightly more than, about the same as, or slightly less than the cost of living. Over the most recent seven year period, disposable income for teachers has generally decreased at most levels when inflation is factored.

Our jobs have become immeasurably more difficult and pressure packed. NCLB, SOL, AYP, ELL, and VGLA are all terms with associated requirements and stresses that the 1998 Roanoke County teacher could just barely conceive. Those terms have changed the face of education in our school system and our state. The teachers have met the challenge of revamping and reworking their instructional models and practices.

Over the same period, compensation for Roanoke County teachers has slipped gradually away from the top tier in the region.

Career earnings (based on the current scale) for Roanoke County teachers now fall behind teachers from Salem, Botetourt, Franklin County, and Roanoke City.

We respectfully request that the school board make a commitment to teacher salary improvement in this year’s budget and the two following budget cycles.

Specifically, we request that you…

· Adjust the mid-range of the scale (approx 1%)

Right now, it takes a teacher around twenty years to reach the halfway point on the scale. We want teachers to reach this milestone earlier. We believe that reaching the midpoint of the scale at the midpoint of a career (30 years) would be a reasonable goal. Neighboring localities reach that level by step 15 (Salem, Franklin Co.)

· Include an across the board 4 % raise for teachers this year

· Agree to a 5% Compensation Commitment over the following two budget years.

These steps, taken in unison and with committed purpose, will work to improve the compensation of our teachers, the most important educational resource.

Thank You

Thom Ryder

RCEA President