...And It Begins

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia officially released his proposed budget amendments today. The details on how his budget amendment proposal would impact our beloved county is still to be understood, but it's impossible to cut money out of a budget without there being an impact. Brace ourselves, we must. (I don't know why I just wrote in Yoda-talk.)

According to Rob Jones of VEA, there are supportable details found within the Governor's amendments. Tackling an announced $2.9 Billion deficit will not be easy. Rob passed along the following notes this afternoon.

He cut education less than any other area.

He looked at both sides of the ledger, and raised the cigarette tax, tweaked the land-preservation tax credit and eliminated the “dealer discount” (paid to merchants for collecting the sales tax) to reduce the harm to essential state programs.

We have grave concerns regarding the fact that:

He made $400 million of the cuts to education permanent cuts that will be with us even when the recession is over ($400 million in SOQ funding reductions partially offset by $60 million in loss mitigation for the 2009-2010 school year). The impact on next year is $340 million. The impact into the future is $400 million per year. This eliminates the state share of funding for 13,000 positions including custodians, finance officers, HR directors, assistant superintendents and central office personnel).

What we know about the cuts for the next school year?

$340 million SOQ cuts to support and administrative components of the formula
$78 million in teacher salary
$82.5 in school construction

Total = $500.5 million, or slightly over ½ billion

No doubt many of you will want to know what can be done faced with the reality of the budget shortfall (could end up being larger than $2.9 Billion). I can almost say with complete certainty that the budget will be amended. What we must do is help direct the amendments in a positive direction for public school education.

On January 9, I plan to join our education coalition partners in Lynchburg at a state budget hearing. At that hearing, I will no doubt push for examination of different revenue generating plans that would soften the blow. Re-instituting the estate tax, along with the cigarette tax increase, is one idea that is being considered (tax on estates valued over $2 million).

Most importantly, we must fight hard and strong to keep any cuts that happen from becoming permanent. This is paramount! Any cuts made in the remainder of the biennial budget must remain temporary. Virginia is already ranked 37th in support for public schools in America. That dubious ranking would slide further if these cuts were to become permanent.

President Boitnott will present a petition at the budget hearing in Richmond on January 19 that all members, friends of members, relatives, parents, and citizens are invited to sign. The petition clearly speaks to the issues we care deeply about. Please sign this on-line petition and urge your colleagues, family and friends to sign on as well. Our battle is to prevent permanent cuts to education funding.

The petition can be found at:

http://www.fundqualityschools.org/

Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent of RCPS, is working on getting a clear picture of how the proposed amendments may affect Roanoke County. Right now, this early in the budget process, it's really too early to tell. However, brace ourselves, we must.

On a side note, I'm experimenting with a new service on this blog. I realized that from time to time, I want all of you to be able to see documents that relate directly to a specific topic. Meg Swecker, master of all things technology, pointed me to a site called, Drop.io. With Drop.io, I can upload all kinds of documents, sound, and pictures and have you access them at your leisure. You can view and download the files as you wish. So far, I've added all of the back-issues of the RCEA News from this year, Governor Kaine's press release from today, and a few other documents that will be related to future blog entries. You can test out the service by clicking on the link in this article for proposed budget amendments or you can visit the whole RCEADistrict4 site.


Thom Ryder
RCEA President

Most Likely To Succeed

The New Yorker has published a piece by Malcolm Gladwell that delves into the murky world of determining who is and who isn't effective as a teacher called "Most Likely to Succeed." Gladwell compares predicting who will be an excellent teacher with determining who will succeed as an NFL quarterback. He notes that NFL scouts have failed more often than not when trying project NFL success onto a college quarterback (Jim Druckenmiller anyone?). So it is with projecting the success of teachers.

Gladwell also looks at some pioneering research being done at UVA's Curry School that is trying to identify what is excellent teaching. He takes that research a step further and suggests that what we sorely need is an open enrollment of teachers, credentials aren't important. Enrollees would need to complete a rigorous apprenticeship where they must prove themselves effective by raising test scores by a significant amount or be released. Those who make it through the apprenticeship successfully would be richly compensated.

Currently, the salary structure of the teaching profession is highly rigid, and that would also have to change in a world where we want to rate teachers on their actual performance. An apprentice should get apprentice wages. But if we find eighty-fifth-percentile teachers who can teach a year and a half’s material in one year, we’re going to have to pay them a lot—both because we want them to stay and because the only way to get people to try out for what will suddenly be a high-risk profession is to offer those who survive the winnowing a healthy reward.

I remember when I was teaching in Albemarle County back in the late 1980's, the school board decided to do something about "bad" teachers, so they imposed a merit pay scheme. Turns out that so many teachers proved themselves meritorious that the school board was forced to pay out rewards to a whole lot more people than they anticipated. After a couple of years of providing a "healthy reward" to so many teachers, the school board abandoned the whole plan and went back to a more traditional teacher pay scale.

Merit pay schemes have always seemed like empty ideas to me. While the research going on at UVA is intriguing, do experts really know enough about what makes a great teacher to confidently identify it so that those teachers can be rewarded? What's with this idea of teaching a year and a half's material in one year? Doesn't the author realize that we teach rigidly prescribed amounts of material every year...no more, no less. Are we really going to base a reward system on what are arguably flawed tests. It's already sad enough that we place so much emphasis on them; is more emphasis a good thing?

These are all questions that came to my mind as I read Gladwell's piece. I would certainly reccommend you read the piece and form your own opinions. Feel free to deposit your comments here.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=7

The Fall Line

Act Now! Jetzt handeln! Actúa ahora! Закон в настоящее время! Agire ora!

February 28, 2008

Dear RCEA Members,

For the past couple of weeks VEA has been monitoring some disturbing developments at the state general assembly regarding educational funding and teacher compensation. If you recall, VEA was initially disappointed with the Governor’s proposed budget. Although it included a full rebenchmarking of the Standards of Quality, it had very little support for teacher compensation.

Since that time the Senate and House have weighed in with their budgets for education, and after careful study, it’s apparent that the House budget, if approved, would be very damaging to education funding not only for the two year term of the budget, but on into the future. Penny Hodge, in her NEWS item to all Roanoke County employees today, explains the proposed House budget best.

The Governor’s, House, and Senate budgets all include approximately the same total dollars for Roanoke County Schools. There are, however, some significant differences in how those dollars are allocated to the school system. The House budget proposes to permanently change the funding formula so that future raises given to teachers are capped within the funding formula at the rate approved by the state. This effectively shifts the cost of future raises in excess of the typical 1% annualized state approved rate from the state to the local school divisions. The House has included funding for raises and additional construction grants in their 2008-09 budget so that it appears that the total revenue is as good as the Senate and Governor budgets. However, the funding for the raises and construction may or may not be included in future budgets and, in the meantime, the funding formula will have been permanently changed to reduce state aid to schools.

As many of you know, VEA has a team of legislative specialists led by Rob Jones and our very own Doris Boitnott. They have been keeping tabs on the situation and provide daily reports. The budget proposals are currently being debated by budget conferees. These legislators, a small band of senators and delegates, will hash out the details of the entire state budget and try to come to consensus. If the Senate conferees aren’t able to dissuade the House conferees from their destructive path for education funding, then the last line of defense would be the Governor’s veto pen. We simply don’t know for sure where the Governor will side in that battle, if it comes to that.

So our best option now is to contact the budget conferees directly and immediately!

The VEA has made this very easy.

Visit this link

http://www.veanea.org/legislative_contact.asp

and click on

Tell Budget Conferees to Support Public Education in Budget.

Rob and Doris have set the system up to send a letter on your behalf to each conferee. You can use the VEA wording or modify it with your own thoughts and ideas. Either method is effective. The key is that the conferees need to hear from educators, school administrators, school board members, Board of Supervisor members, classified employees, and exceptional citizens. Everyone needs to let the conferees know that the House budget’s educational funding solution is simply unacceptable.

Should you need further reading to more fully grasp the danger of the proposed House budget, I suggest you read the recent editorials in The Roanoke Times and The Virginian-Pilot. Also, please visit the official RCEA blog and VEA’s Daily General Assembly Reports to keep up on the latest on this battle for the present and future in Virginia Public School Education.

Yours,

Thom Ryder

An Open Letter to RCEA Members

February 18, 2007

An Open Letter to RCEA Members

The Assistant Superintendent for Finance recently showed me an email where I was reportedly promoting the idea that the County would receive $11.9 million in new money from the state if all goes according to plan in the General Assembly this year. If I claimed that, I was in error, and I apologize.

In early January, VEA produced a projection where it took into account various sources of new money for the local budget and came up with the figure of $10.9 million in new state money. At the same time, Penny Hodge projected $8.9 million in new money. In the past, VEA’s projections, according to Pat Wood our Uniserv Director, have been very accurate. Then again, so have Penny’s projections.

I can’t, at this point determine why there is such a discrepancy between the projections; however, I suspect the answer lies in the numbers used for the Average Daily Membership (ADM). As you may know, the state pays localities based on the number of days that each student attends school. A conservative guess would yield a smaller amount and a less conservative guess would yield a larger amount. Whether that is the case or not, I cannot determine at this point.

Of course, any discussion of new money is really quite premature until the General Assembly decides how it is going to handle the state’s financial crisis. Right now, things are looking less and less positive. You can follow their progress by visiting the VEA’s Daily General Assembly Report. (http://www.veaweteach.org/legislative_ga_reports.asp)

Again, I apologize if any of my comments at any time have confused the issue.

Thom

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

A Day in Oz

A Day in Oz

The Roanoke County School Board met today at their annual school board retreat. In past years, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors would join them and open, frank discussions would take place over the issues facing the county and the school system. This year, the supervisors chose not to attend, much to our loss.

The retreat took place at the spacious and comfortable confines of the Roanoke County Schools central office boardroom on Cove Road from 8 am until 4pm with a 20-minute break for lunch. Water and Chik-fil-a nuggets and wraps were provided for the staff and board members. Certainly, no one can possibly accuse them of misusing taxpayer’s money on this retreat!

I also attended the session along with our Uniserv Director, Pat Wood. Together, we also played the role of “The Public” at the meeting. Few formal decisions were made at this meeting; instead, the purpose of the meeting was to take stock of where our school system is now and what we hope to pursue in the near and long-term future. To that end, the discussions were detailed, rich, and lively. Many of the discussions will bear fruit in policies adopted at future school board meetings, so I won’t report on them here and now.

As many of you know, the Roanoke County School Board was shuffled in the last election with Fuzzy Minnix and David Wymer being elected to the body. Today was their first opportunity for an intense and prolonged policy discussion. At the risk of heaping overwhelming praise on them, I would like to let readers here know that I was impressed with them today. Jerry Canada, chairman, has a breadth of historical knowledge which is key for keeping a group on course. Drew Barrineau, vice-chair, is an astute observer of county politics especially regarding the Board of Supervisors. He also has a keen eye for organizing a budget. Mike Stovall, besides having a depth of historical knowledge, has the unique ability to gather all of the ideas on the table and synthesize them. David Wymer possesses a strong understanding of the inner-workings of educational programs and internal budgets. Fuzzy Minnix brings a fresh perspective from the general public and a wealth of experience as a former supervisor. This board knows what they are doing, and that’s an important thing for the continued strength of our school system.

Those who know me, know that I don’t suck up to people. So my praise of the board is genuine. I’m sure that as time passes, there will be issues where our organization will disagree with decisions made and policies created by the board; however, I feel strongly that this board has the interests of the whole system in mind.

From the meeting today, several things are clear. I’m going to address them in list form with my perceptions, understandings, and opinions attached.

1. The state legislative season is jumbled even more than it has been in recent years. The General Assembly is split ideologically and politically. There is a real possibility of continued acrimony and gridlock. That does not serve our public school children or public school employees well. Despite that, there is a real opportunity for a significant increase of state monies this year, despite the turmoil and despite the soured economy. It seems that Roanoke is poorer so our composite index score is lower. This should bring us more dollars from the state via their funding formal for local schools. On top of that, the state has re-benchmarked their Standards of Quality. These two factors, even if the legislature doesn’t add any additional money for teacher salaries, means that the county will receive a nice increase in state funding for the next budget year.

2. It looks like the board is committed to providing a substantial increase in salary for classified employees (secretaries, building supervisors, nutrition specialists, and instructional assistants). While it may take two or more years to accomplish the goal of making these categories the regional leaders, this board seemed resolute in making that happen. While the RCEA has not taken a position on that, I personally applaud that move. We represent about 35 teaching assistants and all of the teachers in our organization work closely with these people daily. Their dedication and loyalty should be rewarded. They deserve our support and the board’s support in raising their wage to a more respectable level.

3. Teacher pay was like the big gorilla hiding out in the open in the room. It wasn’t discussed, but it was always in the background. The RCPS Salary Committee will meet on February 14 to hash out the official committee position. Hopefully, the committee will come into agreement with the RCEA’s salary position: Multi-year approach to improve salaries to the best in the region (more on that later).

4. A decision was made on the laptop initiative. I’ll hold off commenting on that until the central office staff has the opportunity to discuss release that information. I will say that the board has provided a clear direction on how technology will be integrated into the entire system.

Many more topics were discussed at the meeting. Ideas were thick and fast. All told, it was a great meeting.

Virginia Tech beat Boston College 81-73 today!!!!!!!

On another note, our members are very concerned about teacher salaries. I’ve heard from many of you. Many of you are upset that the Governor did not include money for the state’s share of salary raises for teachers in the first year of the biennial budget. I’m upset about that, too. Governor Kaine professed to be “The Education Candidate,” and he is coming dangerously close to joining recent governors Gilmore, Allen, and Wilder in the book of non-supporters. Here are some points to consider. Again another list.

1 VEA may still be able to persuade the General Assembly to amend the budget. Then it will be up to us to persuade the Governor to accept the amendment.

2 No matter what the state does for salaries, the salary war will be fought at the Board of Supervisor level. Will they pass along the increased state funds to the schools? We will have to persuade them.

3 I’ve heard those neutral on salary increases for teachers state that you really shouldn’t have to improve salaries to the National Average because that’s a “moving target” that can never be hit (Wouldn’t it be nice to hit the target for a change instead of continually missing?). Instead, they say that our state should compare itself to salaries in our region. They also proclaim that we shouldn’t necessarily be paid at or above the state average, because Northern Virginia skews that average, and the cost of living is much less here. Finally, they matter-of-factly state that teacher salaries in Roanoke County should only be compared to other systems in the region. So I’ve been thinking about all of that…

…and now a list in response to number 3

A. National Average-Moving Target: Okay, let’s play their game. Twenty years ago, Virginia was a leader in salaries for our region (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, KY, WV, MD, DL). By 2004-05, the state had slipped to 5^th in that group. In recent figures just released by NEA for last school year, Virginia had fallen to 6^th on that list. Looks like the target IS moving…away.

B. The State of Northern Virginia: In the latest national salary rankings, Virginia is ranked 31^st in the country. If we were to allow the state of NOVA to succeed from us, the average salaries for the remaining school districts would drop to 46^th in the country. I suppose that Virginia would no longer be the 7^th wealthiest state either, but we certainly wouldn’t be the fourth poorest either.

C. Systems in the Region: As we’ve pointed out in recent blog entries, the unquestioned leader in teacher salaries in the area is Salem, a school system born from Roanoke County Schools about 30 years ago. Roanoke County surely would be second on that list, right? Wrong. We come in, generally, fourth or fifth in the region behind Roanoke City, Botetourt, Franklin County, and sometimes Craig County at various points on the teacher pay scale.

Why don’t teachers in Roanoke County have top pay in the region? I’m not one to tie test performance to pay, because we all know that there are many factors that affect whether or not a school makes AYP. But if I was that kind of person , a strong argument could be made in favor of rewarding pay for RCPS teachers.

So I guess the point of this little exercise is that a group can excuse, deflect, and deny the fact that teachers are underpaid, but no matter how the facts are twisted, teacher pay scales in Virginia and Roanoke County are, to adopt a word made famous by Tom Hanks in the movie- “The Terminal,” unacceptable.

Just the Facts

As most of you know, the Governor did not include any money for teacher salary raises in the first year of the biennial budget. VEA petitioned the Governor to include money for the state share of a 5% raise for next year. However, the Governor included no money. The RCEA has proposed a salary scale adjustment equal to roughly 1% salary money along with a 4% across the board raise for next year then a 5% across the board raise for each of the following two school years.

VEA has compiled some facts and information on salaries for you to consider and to use in discussing salaries with your non-teaching friends and legislators. I've added a few comments relating to our locality. My comments are red.

Just the Facts

• Virginia teachers in 2006-07 earned $44,727—far below the national average salary of $50,816. Virginia teacher pay in 2006-07 ranked 31^st , down from 28^th in 2005-06. While we don't have a precise teacher salary average for RCPS, you can rest assured it is significantly less that the state average. I would estimate that the average teacher salary in Roanoke County is about $10,000+ less than the national average.

• The gap between Virginia teacher salaries and the national average has almost doubled from about $3,111 in 2002-03 to $6,089 in 2006-07. Roanoke County teacher salaries are generally between third and fourth in the area. At some steps on the scale, our salaries ranked as low as sixth out of eight school division in the area. Salem, Botetourt, Franklin County, Roanoke City, and in some cases Craig County pay more than Roanoke County at different steps along the scale.
  

Step			Current RCS Salary Schedule 2007-2008	Rank
0			34,500	3rd
5			36,717	3rd
10			38,292	4th
15			41,867	5th
20			45,000	6th
25			52,389	1st
30			53,285	4th
35			54,404	3rd

• Virginia’s rank on teacher pay is falling among Southern states and the nation as a whole. Among the 16 states comprising the Southern Regional Education Board, Virginia teacher salaries ranked 7^th, behind Maryland ($56,927), Delaware ($54,680), Georgia ($49,905), North Carolina ($46,410), Florida ($45,308), and Texas ($44,897). As recently as 2004, Virginia ranked 4^th among SREB states.

• The Virginia Education Association is calling for a 5% increase in each of the next two years to move the Virginia average teacher salary closer to the national average

• In constant (inflation-adjusted) dollars, Virginia teacher salaries actually declined 2 percent from 1995-96 to 2005-06. Nationally, salaries gained 1.5 percent over that time. Inflation for the Virginia region has been at or above 3.5% since 2004, and most steps on the RCPS teacher scale (other than from steps 8-14 and 24-32) have lost purchasing power over the last seven year ranging between about 3 and 14% .
  

2005	3.6
2006	3.4
2007	3.5 est Inflation

• The proposed state budget includes no funds to help school divisions increase salaries for next year (2008-09). It does include funds to support a 3.5% increase for teachers and a 3% for certain school support professionals in the second year, 2009-10.

Be sure to visit the VEA website to become a Cyber Lobbyist.

Remember to sign the VEA petition and to write your local legislators. Depending on exactly where you live in the area, you may be represented by delegates Morgan Griffith, William Fralin, or Onzlee Ware. On the state senate side, Senators John Edwards and Ralph Smith represent people in the immediate Roanoke Valley.

It Ain't Peanuts

It Ain’t Peanuts

Crafting a school budget is a painstaking process that easily lasts six months. Generally, the period from January through March is the time when the most intense budget action takes place. This year is no exception. In fact, the action this year is more intense than ever.

The budget process that Roanoke County Schools continue to evolve is increasingly open and inclusive. In recent years, Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent of Finance along with her staff have made a point to keep employees informed of the process through timely employee news memos posted on our First Class email system. David Atkins, Budget Assistant, has created a fine Budget space on the county web site.

New for the 2008-2009 budget season was the invitation to all county employees to present their budget needs before the school board. Employees and school groups were invited to develop specific budget proposals and submit them in advance to Mrs. Hodge. Proposals presented were intended for new budget impact items only. Many individuals, groups like RCEA, and internal central office departments took the time to assess their needs and submitted detailed proposals for the school board to consider.

Proposals were due in mid-December and each person or group was given the opportunity to speak before the board regarding their proposal at a special budget session on January 2. That meeting was an amazing example of transparent government.

If you open the link (warning: this is a large pdf file and takes a while to load), you will discover that there were 56 separate requests for new money in the 2008-2009 school budget. The RCEA took the prize for submitting the largest proposal. I suppose that’s understandable since we proposed a scale adjustment to bring the middle steps on the scale closer to the mid point of salary on the scale* as well as a 4% across the board salary increase for teachers. The total estimated impact for our proposal is about $3.1 million new dollars. All told, there were requests for $7,043,138 in new projects and support.

At the January 10 school board meeting, the board entered into another budget session. In this session, the school board reviewed the proposals and recommendations of the Central Office staff regarding those proposals. Each item was addressed again and a central office staff member was called to speak to the central office recommendation. Of the 56 original proposals, alternate source funding was found for 12 of them. In some cases these alternate sources were found using current discretionary funds ($175,000 for formative assessment program/$50,000 for data analysis program, market adjustment for middle and high school assistant principals). In other cases, creative staffing was suggested to achieve the intent of the original proposals (testing coordinators in high schools).

The remaining 44 items were prioritized. Some, like an additional HVAC technician and roof replacements among others, were considered “Must Do” items. Some, like a new email system and a new social worker, were determined by staff to be “Should Do” items. A Math specialist and 2 gifted resource teachers were placed on the “Like to Do” list along with new art and health teacher positions for elementary. Several pay issues were directed to the “Market Adjustment Pay Plan.” Money for bus drivers, building operators, bookkeepers, and instructional assistants will all be processed through that plan. More research by us will need to be done to determine exactly what this “Market Adjustment Pay Plan” category is. The RCEA salary proposal was sent to the RCPS salary committee for review and action. The salary committee will meet on February 14 and the RCEA has several representatives on it along with representatives from the school board and other county employee classifications. 18 items did not make the cut and were not recommended. Those items totaled about $1 million. Most of those needs were addressed in some other manner and very few were rejected completely.

The school board will meet again on Saturday, January 26 for a budget retreat at the central office building and again on January 31 for their next regular meeting. That meeting will have a public hearing on the budget. The RCEA will observe these and all other future school board budget meetings. We, most likely, will speak to our proposal at the January 31 meeting.

Without a doubt, the open, transparent budget process the school board has adopted is refreshing. However, several looming potential kinks in the budget process could derail the positive effort.

One of the quirks of our local governmental system is that we have elected school boards with absolutely no revenue/tax authority. This body must present their budget to the county board of supervisors for approval. Interestingly, the elected county board of supervisors has absolutely no legal authority to dictate to the elected school board how they will spend approved funds. That being said, the board of supervisors can and routinely does simply direct the school board to revisit their proposal and trim a certain percentage from it.

Our current board of supervisors has changed somewhat. Richard Flora, ex-school central office staff member and the Craig County Administrator, has taken the Chairman position on the board of supervisors. Charlotte Moore was elected to replace the retiring Mike Wray. She joins Flora, Mike Altizer, Joe McNamara, and Butch Church on the board.

The RCEA was hoping that the board of supervisors would attend the school board retreat on Saturday, January 26 to discuss the school budget, but we’ve heard they will not attend. That’s a disappointment. In our opinion, the more the school board and board of supervisors have the opportunity to share information regarding budgets and schools, the more transparent and strong our local government becomes.

The other potential impediment to implementing our budget proposal is the eventual state budget being crafted now in Richmond. In the original proposal put forth by Governor Tim Kaine, no money for teacher salaries was included in the first year of the budget. Usually when the Governor includes teacher pay in the budget, he puts in money for the state share** of an x% raise. With no money in the state budget for a teacher salary increase for the 2008-2009 school year, the onus of providing any raise will fall squarely back on the localities…unless VEA can affect an amendment to that budget. There is some hope that can happen. Back in December, the Roanoke County School Board met with area legislators. At that meeting , Delegate Griffith-currently the Speaker of the House and arguably the most powerful legislator in the General Assembly- told the group that he supports teachers but not a state salary raise. He did offer, however, his efforts to scratch together $100 or $200 for teachers. Obviously, we need to do better than that.

On the positive side, the Governor’s budget includes money to address the re-benchmarking of the Standards of Quality (SOQ). The SOQ’s are legal code that form the basis for state support for local funding. The SOQ’s define what programs and positions the state will support. In past years, Roanoke County, along with most other localities, has found the need to go above and beyond the staffing minimums prescribed in the SOQ’s. Each time a locality does that, they do it using 100% non-state funds. Every few years, the Virginia JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission) takes a look at the state formula and adjusts it. The most recent review was particularly fruitful and there were many funding enhancements in the SOQ’s. If the legislators maintain the JLARC recommendations in the budget, the overall state education budget will increase by about 7.5%.

In addition, the state uses a sliding scale called a composite index to determine the actual dollars that will flow to a locality. That scale has also been adjusted and Roanoke County’s composite score has dropped (meaning we are relatively poorer). Mrs. Hodge anticipates receiving more state money because of that.

In each of these two cases, we need to work to make sure that any new monies coming to the county for the benefit of schools actually get appropriated to the schools. What we don’t want to see is the supervisors erasing money from one pot while money from the state pot is added. We must remain vigilant and engaged in the process. More on what we must do will be posted in the next edition of the RCEA blog.

* Currently, a teacher must work over 20 years to get to the mid point on the teacher salary scale.

** State share is usually about 35% of the cost based on a complex formula that no humans understand.

Jeopardy

Let's play a little game of Jeopardy with some information that was unveiled in the latest NEA Report on teacher salary. The numbers reflect a snapshot of last school year across the state and country.

?? $44,727 ??

What is the Virginia average salary for a teacher in the 2006-2007 school year and the amount a RCPS teacher finally surpasses at Step 20 on the 2007-2008 scale.

?? $50,816 ??

What is the national average salary for a teacher in the 2006-2007 school year and the amount a RCPS teacher finally surpasses at Step 23 on the 2007-2008 scale.

?? $6,089 ??

What is the amount that the average teacher salary in Virginia for 2006-2007 was below the 2006-2007 national average teacher salary.

?? $5,408 ??

What is the amount that the 2007-2008 RCPS Step 10 is below the Virginia 2006-2007 state average teacher salary.

?? $11,497 ??

What is the amount that the 2007-2008 RCPS Step 10 is below the 2006-2007 National average teacher salary.

I’ve heard people say that comparing teacher salaries with a state or national average is like trying to hit a moving target. I suppose those people are correct. I would suggest, however, that they take better aim.

Read more about this topic at the VEA website.

?? Balanced 455 ??

What is the RCEA proposal for a three-year salary initiative that will first balance the teacher pay scale so that Step 15 is halfway between Steps 10 and 20. Additionally, the RCEA plan advocates a 4% raise for the coming 2008-2009 school year and then a 5% raise for 2009-2010 and a 5% raise for the 2010-2011 school years. Balanced 455.

A Day in the Life

A Commentary

A Day in the Life

I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

Without a doubt, this song by Lennon and McCartney has always been one of my top five favorite Beatle tunes. Like many of you, I grew up learning the words to all of the Beatle songs. I can’t say I ever really gave them thoughtful consideration, I just knew that they were loads of fun to sing. This song was no different. It sure was fun to sing, “Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.” Yet as I’ve grown older, this verse comes back to me more and more as something other than just a rhythmically clever collection of syllables. It speaks to how we can sometimes get stuck in counting the ordinary and expected instead of acting for positive change. At least, that what it tells me today.

Making your way in the world today is getting harder and harder. I suppose I don’t have to tell any of you that. Gas prices have spiked into uncharted territory. Food prices, in tandem, have jumped as well. Milk is $4.00 a gallon. The prices of cheese and meat have recently spiked as well. There seems to be no end to these economic pressures in sight.

As teachers, support, and staff members, our jobs haven’t gotten any easier. In fact, they are exponentially more complex today than they were just ten years ago. SOL pressures cast their knot of anxiety over us all, but other issues have also crept into our daily lives. Children today need so much more from us from basic health and nutrition services to education needs. So many more children come to school with insufficient preparation. The population of children we serve is rapidly evolving with more and more children coming to us from fractured homes and incomplete families. The challenges that face all of us are scary and exhausting.

Precisely for those reasons, our positions in the community and school system have become even more vital. It is our contention at the RCEA that our educator compensation packages should reflect our important roles in the community. At all levels in the education program and in all classifications, we should be receiving benefits and compensation that are tops in the region and comparable to colleagues in the country.

Over the years, I’ve taught in several school districts. In one district I remember becoming frustrated every budget cycle. In times when tax revenues were tight, teachers were told that since the locality needed to tighten their financial belts, we’d have to fore go even the most basic cost of living salary increases. We were promised that when revenues returned to normal, we’d get back on track. Predictably, when revenue returned to normal, two things happened. The local supervisors would cut the tax rate and the school board would divert salary monies to build a needed school or other facilities. I’ll never forget being told in meetings, “Well you have to make a decision here…what do you want, more money or a needed elementary school?” Instead of rightfully placing that burden on the community, the schools and facilities were built on the backs of the teachers. I’ve never forgotten that.

I’ve begun to hear a similar argument whispered here in Roanoke County. The implication is that if teachers and staff are to get salary and benefit reform, then some hard choices will have to be made. What are we as teachers willing to give up? Are we willing to give up technology? The ActivBoard program in elementary schools? Low teacher/pupil class sizes? School nurses in elementary schools? Elementary Art/Music programs?

In each case, my reply is that I’m not willing to give up anything that is right and good for the children, and I’m not willing to give up on proper compensation and benefits. Instead of directing these types of questions internally, the school system, with our important and valued input, needs to be defining exactly what we need in order to run a first class educational program in these challenging times. Our locality already does much more than most in providing a wide variety of non-state supported services, and they should be commended for that support, but there is still so much more that needs to be done.

Once we’ve identified our real and justified needs, the supervisors should be presented with those reasoned and supported requests. It may be that the supervisors will have to look deep into their pockets and even seek additional revenue to assist the school system in maintaining and excelling as a division.

One thing that I can never accept is to be told that employees have to decide between compensation, valued programs, and needed facilities. Such an approach only ensures, at best, the maintenance of the status quo and at worst the erosion of the entire program. It’s like counting the holes in Blackburn Lancashire to find out how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

Thom Ryder

RCEA President