Calendar Perks

The School calendar for 2009-2010 is currently in a draft state. Over the course of the past month or so, we've received three potential calendar plans for next year. One plan would have schools starting much the same as our current calendar. Another would have us beginning school after Labor Day while the third choice would have us beginning school much earlier with semester exams hitting before the Winter Break in December. Each option would have school ending in early June, and each option would offer the most basic winter break with school dismissing on December 23.

While there was support for each option, the traditional calendar far and away received the most support from teachers in our organization with the caveat that the winter break be extended for a full two weeks as it is this year.

Teachers felt strongly that such a break could be attained in the calendar with minimal adjustments and its effect would be morale boosting. The RCEA modified the traditional draft and forwarded our thoughts to Central and the issue was discussed at the recent EAC meeting.

Our modified traditional draft proposal was accepted by Allen Journell, and he will present it to the school board for approval at the December 11 meeting. Approval is not guaranteed since at least one board member was promoting the early exam calendar.

Late Fall Special

Late Fall Special

A lot has been going on behind the scenes in RCEA land lately. Coming on the heels of our successful lobbying effort for a full two week winter break in next year’s school calendar, we jumped right into a very thorny issue and a cause.

As teachers and support staff began reviewing recent paychecks, many reported that they had been docked significant sums of money for missing the day before, day after, or day of a national holiday. Policies 5.50 and 5.51 in the RCPS policy manual clearly spell out that an employee will be subject to financial penalty if they take a personal leave day on one of the restricted days. What caught all of these people off guard this time was that the holiday, Columbus Day, was NOT a school holiday. It simply never occurred to these people that the county would penalize them for taking the day before, day after, or day of a holiday that wasn’t a holiday.

After much e-discussion with the personnel office, the RCEA and Mr. Hall, RCPS Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, have worked out language that will clarify the language in policies 5.50 and 5.51. At the School Board meeting on Thursday Dec 13, Mr. Hall will suggest that the words “National Holiday” be stricken from the policies. The revised policy will simply state that if a teacher or support staff member were to use a personal day on the day before, day after, or day of a school holiday, they will forfeit their pay for that day. So the new policy will greatly simplify the issue.

In addition to the policy revision, Mr. Hall is proposing that those teachers and staff members who suffered from this confusing policy interpretation will be fully credited their lost pay.

The other issue that the RCEA is in the process of tackling is our salary proposal for the upcoming school year. Our salary committee is made up of Thom Ryder, Sarah Hollett, Jennifer Burke, Sara Cann, and Judd Fredstrom with valuable advice coming from our Uniserv Director, Pat Wood.

This year the county is opening up the budget process to schools, groups, and organizations within the county system. An invitation for budget proposals was sent out by Assistant Superintendent of Finance/Budget, Penny Hodge. Proposals are due to her office by Dec 14, and all groups and individuals will be given an opportunity to present a case for their proposal before the full School Board on Jan 3.

After much debate and discussion, our salary committee is putting the final touches on our salary plan. We have noted, through meticulous research by Judd Fredstrom, that pay for Roanoke County teachers has been slipping in relation to the actual cost of living in our area by a significant amount over the last seven years. In addition, the relative standing of teacher salaries, in comparison with pay in neighboring school systems, remains in the middle of the pack (generally 3^{rd out of 8 divisions}).

One issue that doesn’t get recognized by most people is that it takes a teacher in Roanoke County a very long time to realize real, positive salary growth. For example, it takes a teacher about 20 years to make it to the halfway point on the scale. Logic would dictate that the halfway point should be reached after about 15 years of service. That’s also about the time when teachers in Roanoke County make it to the state average teacher pay. Most other area localities reach that point well earlier in a teacher’s career.

We will propose a long-term approach to improving salaries in RCPS. For the coming school year, we feel justified in asking that the scale be adjusted one time in such a way that a teacher will reach the mid point of the pay scale at the mid point of their career. One way to look at that is to make sure that step 15 is halfway between step 10 and 20. Judd has crunched the numbers and has figured that the scale can be effectively realigned for well less than a million dollars ($1 million=approx 1% pay raise). Some teachers will receive more of a bump than others in this realignment. In addition to that realignment, we propose that all teachers and staff receive a 4% increase in their pay after the realignment. In each of the following two school budget years, we also propose a 5% pay raise across the board to teachers and staff.

We will lobby hard for these proposals and will work closely with the school board and the central office budget staff to make our plan a reality. We would appreciate your support.

Finally, I bring you the State of the County Address by Supervisor Chairman Joe McNamara. In that address, Mr. McNamara said, “While the Commonwealth is experiencing a 1.2% revenue shortfall (less than the 25 year average shortfall of 1.4%), the County reported a 3.5% surplus of revenues over projection.” Mr. McNamara finished his address with this quote from Harry S. Truman, “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

The RCEA is working to change things for the better.

RCPS Draft Calendar

RCPS Draft 2008-2009 Calendar Released

The school office has released a draft version of the 2008-2009 calendar this week, and in it the major request of the RCEA was dealt with positively. The calendar still must be formally be adopted by the School Board.

The RCEA Calendar Committee had asked that the school board consider building in a full two week winter break instead of having the last day before break be December 23. The Committee realized that with the calendar already compressed that it would be difficult to find the two days to trade-off. The RCEA suggested that the two days be placed at the beginning of the school year allowing for a partial week start of the school year for teachers and students.

Mr. Journell has chosen a different route to manufacture the two days. The school board was very clear in their public meetings that they wanted school to open August 25 and end by June 8. One highlight of the compromise is that the school board will allow for teachers to take a work day at home on Martin Luther King Jr Day. Schools will be open for teachers who need to get into buildings to work on grades if needed.

Overall, the RCEA Calendar Committee is well pleased with the compromise offered by Mr. Journell and the School Board.

You can view the draft calendar by visiting this link

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSXYU-zAWPenUvcowT4VxUw

Now let’s move on to our salary concerns…

Calendar News

Calendar Update

An Open Letter to RCEA Members

The calendar committee met on Tuesday, October 30. There were several items considered. Overall the RCEA Calendar Committee members (exec board at-large reps) felt that Central Office had done a good job with the proposal they made. For instance, there were no conference days scheduled on Wednesdays and for the first time in memory, Roanoke County has been allowed to use bank days as the first 3 snow days instead of using make up days. After the first 3 days are used, we will be alternating make up days with bank days to use the other 2 bank days if necessary. Also, Good Friday will be part of our spring break as it is proposed that spring break fall on the week prior to Easter.

There is one area that we as a committee and hopefully you as RCEA members would like to see changed.

We have the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to be able to have a full 2 weeks of winter break. As the calendar proposal currently stands we would begin school on Monday, August 25 at the suggestion of the school board. Our winter break would begin on Wednesday December 24, Christmas Eve. We would return to school on Monday, January 5.

This schedule offers several concerns/opportunities. First, by beginning on the August 25, we would have a full week in school on the first week. In the past this has been considered difficult for both teachers and students returning from summer break. Second and most importantly, Monday, December 22 and Tuesday, December 23 would be wasted days for instruction in our calendar. With our responsibilities, and level of accountability as teachers constantly rising, we need every day in school to be productive or at least potentially productive. Common sense would dictate that the 2nd and 3rd days before Christmas would be academically unproductive at best.

The calendar committee, along with others present at the RCPS Calendar Committee meeting, have proposed that school begin 2 days earlier in August, thereby addressing each of these concerns.

If we begin on Thursday, August 21, we would have a partial week for the first week of school which would facilitate orientation and acclimation activities. We could then change December 22 and 23 to break days, preserving our instructional integrity and perhaps a bit more of our sanity.

RCEA will present this idea to the school board during citizen’s comments at the Thursday school board meeting.

Just letting you know what’s going on in the world of calendar creation. If you are in need of further information, please let one of us know.

Good luck and take care,

Tim Summers

RCEA Elementary Representative

Sheila Salisbury

RCEA Middle School Representative

Sara Cann

RCEA High School Representative