Early Word

Back from the School Board work session. In a nutshell...no layoffs. 91 positions will be eliminated through attrition. VRS and health insurance will continue to be funded- increases paid. The health insurance contingency fund will be used to meet those costs.

Without the County revenue (negative) match and without... the State VRS funding holiday, we would be in deep trouble. The VRS holiday will one day have to be paid back either locally or at a state level w/ 7.5% interest.

The budget for 2011-2012 looks very bleak right now looking into the future crystal ball.

More detail later after the VT/UConn game :)

The School Board and The Board of Supervisors

School Board and The Board of Supervisors

Joint Work Session 3/11/10

The Players

Supervisors

Butch Church-Chairman

Richard Flora

Ed Elswick

Mike Altizer (absent)

Charlotte Moore

School Board

Mike Stovall-Chairman

Drew Barrineau

David Wymer

Fuzzy Minnix

Jerry Canada

The meeting was a general discussion between the two boards and their staffs. The idea was to discuss budget issues and whatever else came up. The meeting was generally informal. For purposes of brevity, I’ll refer to the players by their last names.

Called to order at 5:05pm

Opening remarks from Stovall and Church:

“We’re all in for the same people, the children and families of Roanoke County”~Church

Budget

Penny Hodge and Diane Hyatt presented a synopsis of the current budget numbers from the school and county perspective. Much of this information is available on the RCPS Budget Blog and through the RCPS Board Docs. The key information was hashed out last night at the budget work session relating to schools:

• $9.2 million gap in House budget
• $7.2 million gap in Senate budget
• RCPS will base its budget on 14,200 students.

County:

• Not filling positions.
• Moving people around.
• County administrator Goodman stated that he believes that the county can weather the storm on their side of the budget without cutting positions.

• The county should be able to meet their revenue match agreement with the school is the Senate version of the state budget is adopted ($3.4 million); however, they would "have a difficult time" supporting their match if the House version is passed. ($4.1 million). The boards did not illuminate us on how they would deal with such a discrepancy.

The Future

Much general discussion, which I will not directly transcribe here, centered on what happens after the current budget process ends.

• All players suggested that they have the current budget process in control. They suggested that while they don’t know final numbers from the state, they are at the point where they have plans to deal with eventual realities in funding.

• However, all the players expressed concern about the future…the budget for 2011-2012. The upcoming budget will force schools to take an $8 million or so hit. However, the following budget is shaping up to be more of the same or worse. After absorbing a reduction of 150 teaching positions over in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 budgets, Barrineau wondered out loud what happens on next year’s budget. Stovall noted that many people are contacting him and asking what they can do to support schools. He opined that “The future budget is big and huge and catastrophic.”

I want to transcribe notes I took during a particularly pivotal exchange between Richard Flora, Jerry Canada, and Butch Church and

Flora: We know where we stand for the 2010-2011 budget. What happens next year 2011-2012? The stimulus money will be gone. When times were good, and the schools were getting a lot of extra revenue the county used a lot of that revenue to build positions on the county side (police, firemen, etc). “We can’t abandon schools now…If you think you can cut education year after year and not affect the program…If people think you can cut education year after year, you must have your head in the sand.”

Canada: “If the revenue doesn’t stop bleeding, then next year jobs, buildings and positions will be cut.”

Church: “We’re not going to take a hike on education.” Wants to work immediately together on next year’s budget.

• The two boards agreed in principle that they would get to work immediately after the 2010-2011 budget is put to bed to begin work on the 2011-2012 budget.

• Canada and Barrineau are concerned that the state may come back in six months, like they did this school year, with revised revenue forecasts and strip financial support from our budget. The board members wanted to know if the supervisors would allow the school board to tap the school division’s capital reserve fund in the event of such an emergency rather than laying off people or cutting programs. While no binding decisions were made, three of the four supervisors expressed no problems with that use and indicated they would understand and support such a decision. Ed Elswick’s view was that if the schools know that this may be a problem later in the year, then the school board should cut the budget hard now. After all, “Tax-paying citizens are having to shell out a lot of money.”

Bent Mountain Summary

Essentially the school board’s position is that they are closing Bent Mountain Elementary; however, they want to retain ultimate control over the building. The thinking is that one day in better times, the school system may be able to reopen the school. The school board members and most of the supervisors seemed to feel (trying to not put words in their mouths) that they would be okay with Bent Mountain going over to county control for the purpose of use as a community center. Mr. Elswick, however, was promoting another plan that was somewhat unclear. On one hand, he spoke of a community center idea yet on the other he talked of a private organization running a school out of the building (Note: the Roanoke Times reported that the organization is a Christian church group looking to begin a private school) School Board members expressed concern about that idea. They asked the county lawyer for clarification on the matter, but he had no definitive opinion of the legality of that use.

Elswick’s initial argument is summarized and paraphrased here:

Citizens want to utilize the school. Want to enhance it and make it a valuable asset. There are no county facilities there. People pay taxes there like everyone else. Proposes using the building as a community and not ask the county for a dime. Would like to preserve the way of life on Bent Mtn. Keep it a school, community center, etc. It’s more a part of the people’s life than similar facilities in the urban areas. It shouldn’t sit idle. The people want title switched to the county…away from the schools. Wants a vote today.

Mr.Minnix chimed in on the argument at this point saying that he had no problem leasing it. No problem letting a school group have it at a nominal fee.

After allowing everyone to voice their concerns, a consensus seemed to emerge whereby it was decided that staff for the county will put forth a proposal for what the county would like to do with the property and present it to the school board. Debate it. Decide it. Do it at highest priority.

Closed at 6:25pm

Regular School Board Meeting

March 11, 2010

7pm

Many people were in attendance. Many wrestlers from Glenvar’s state championship team were there to be honored. Principals were presented with an award from Governor McDonnell.

Most of the people were there to speak on the fate of the county school’s Governor’s School commitment. As we reported from last night’s meeting, the school board had decided that they could continue support for the program one more year, especially after negotiating a 20% reduction in the cost of the 57 (might be 54..can’t remember for sure) student slots. Total cost of about $250,000. Before opening the public comment section of the meeting, Mr. Stovall announced the board’s intent to the public in the meeting. Each board member then took a turn to espouse his support for the Governor’s School program. However, each board member also stressed that more than likely, the issue would come up again next year. Several board members pleaded with the citizens to contact their legislators in Richmond to help secure future funding support.

Several citizens rose to speak. The first two were a couple. The husband opened by telling the board that he is “an executive at a Fortune 500 company in Roanoke.” He told the board that they need a comprehensive review of the budget. He pointed out several items that were in opposition to how industry handles budgets. He especially was concerned about discretionary funds at central and paying for employees health care benefits. He believes employees should be paying these increases out of their pocket. This man went on to say “Hysteria generated by the media and school employees…” over the budget and the cuts is inappropriate and should not be tolerated by the people. His wife later followed up by saying that the taxpayers made their voices heard during the last election and they elected to send representatives to Richmond to cut the budget. She ran out of time to complete her statement.

Several Governor’s School students then spoke and gave their planned speeches in favor of their school. Each student who spoke was rational and presented well-reasoned arguments.

As an aside and commentary, I wanted to share the public comments as a way to illustrate a point. Our students are civic-minded, concerned and constructive…and that is not a “histrionic” statement.

The only other action at the regular school board meeting was the approval of the new retirement offer from Personnel. The offer (50 years old w/ at least 10 years in the county gets you $12,500 or $2,500 for five years towards health insurance premium) was approved without discussion.

The Board quickly adjourned at 8:05 to rush home and watch the second half of the UNC/Georgia Tech ACC tournament basketball game.

thom ryder

Grim

It's hard to sugar coat what's going on behind the scenes as the 2010-2011 school budget is prepared. Thanks to an $8-12 million drop in state funding, Roanoke County is faced with some horrible choices. The numbers keep fluctuating...actually, they keep going up.

Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent for Budget and Finance, has laid out all the options discussed up to this point in her Budget Blog. One thing to keep in mind at this point is that unless the state makes an about face and decides to uphold its constitutional responsibility to fully fund its share of Virginia's public schools, drastic cuts will need to be made.

At the budget workshop on Wednesday, new ideas were presented to the school board that had not been publicly mentioned as possibilities before. None of these suggestions have been enacted...merely discussed.

• Close Clearbrook Elementary
• Close Fort Lewis Elementary
• Reduce employee salaries by 1%
• 1 day furloughs (unpaid)
• Eliminate middle and high school athletics
• Outsource selected services like custodial, nutrition, nursing, and transportation
• Tap the health insurance reserve to buffer the rising cost of premiums
• Increase class size by eliminating 37 teaching positions (presented Jan 28)
• Many more...
  

So what needs to happen? People, regular people, taxpaying people, non-educator people need to understand that our schools all across the state are facing (a word I dislike) "Draconian" cuts. People need to get fired up enough to send a message supportive of public school education to Richmond and our legislators. Unless that happens, public schools in Virginia will be fractured.

Keep up to date by reading VEA's Daily Reports. Rob and Doris are great advocates for public school education and educators. Their blog is timely.

Continually Maintained

Virginia’s Constitution says “The General Assembly shall provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children of school age throughout the Commonwealth, and shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained.”


The Virginia Constitution has strong language related to public school education. Very directly put, the state has the legal OBLIGATION to ensure that public schools are adequately funded. Lately, we've heard that the state wants to cut ANOTHER $720 from the education budget. The impact would be devastating to public schools in our state. In Roanoke County, we're staring at over $9 million in cuts from the state. Such cuts would destroy what we've come to expect from public school education in our locality.


You can read more of VEA President Dr. Kitty Boitnott's (ex-RCEA member) comments to the press on February 8.



Read more at VEA Daily Reports blog.

VEA Keeps You Informed

VEA has launched a blog that will address important General Assembly legislative issues.

Hot off the press is VEA's Rob Jones' first look at the various bills that, if passed, will drastically reshape VRS for educators. The legislative attack on VRS is serious and should be of great concern to all educators who plan to make education their life's profession.

Check out VEA's legislative blog at

VEA Daily Reports
http://veadailyreports.blogspot.com/

New Holes Cut in the Belt

You can read our current newsletter by visiting our drop.io space. RCEA News

New Holes Cut in the Belt

“We will continue to identify and implement cost-saving measures and frugal spending as a means of focusing the available resources on classroom instruction.”

~Penny Hodge, Assistant Superintendent of Finance

Do those words resonate with you? If so, welcome to the 2009-2010 school year.

Schools all across the county have redoubled efforts to pinch every penny and to scrape every scrap of savings out of the local school budget. Most schools have instituted strict copying policies in order squeeze out any savings they can. Some schools have gone to copy number limits while other schools now require prior approval for each copy. Most schools have also halted discretionary spending for office supplies and professional activities. High schools are reallocating human assets at athletic games by stepping up the use of teachers and reducing the number of paid security officials. All of these and a myriad of other local school cost-saving measures are being implemented all across the county.

You no doubt already are experiencing the byproducts of last spring’s round of cuts. Teachers in middle school are now teaching an extra period thus increasing their workload and reducing their planning time. All schools are suffering from markedly increased class sizes. This is especially felt in the early grades. Numbers in some kindergarten classrooms have skyrocketed and class sizes in all grades are at levels not experienced in over thirty years.

While no doubt the cost-saving measures and personnel changes save the school division real money, they do impact the instructional program, profoundly. Quite simply, teachers are being required to do much more with much less.

As an association, we remain dedicated to advocating for our members at the local level. We will continue to be a strong presence at the School Board level while increasing our visibility at the county supervisor level. As always, you can take comfort that you have someone who has your back, our Uniserv Director, Pat Wood.

...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

Hard Times

Hard Times honors one of my personal heroes, Studs Terkel, who passed away earlier in the month.

Robley Jones sent out another Budget-gram today...For those who follow the budget, the news is rather ominous. Folks, the budget shortfall in Virginia keeps growing. Back in the summer, it was predicted to be $1 billion. Then it eeked-up to $2.5 billion. Now..$3.2 billion. I've even heard whispers of more earth-shattering deficits. Times remain serious and uneasy.

Here's the full text of Rob's letter today:

The two day Senate Finance Committee Annual Retreat immediately followed the House retreat. This time the setting is the Fredericksburg Hospitality House Conference Center.

Four straight days of reports of doom and gloom have me paring my Christmas list.

Chairman Colgan’s opening remarks were shocking and courteous. Shocking in that the size of the budget hole has grown to $3.2256 billion. The Chairman was courteous in his emphasis on a desire for a bipartisan approach to the crisis. In my time as your lobbyist, exceptional individuals have chaired this most powerful committee in the Virginia General Assembly. Colgan maintains the high standard set by Andrews and Chichester.

Staff analyst, Becky Covey, said we have been in a “slow motion recession – probably since the beginning of 2008.” She asserted that, “A deeper recession lasting several quarters in now the likely scenario.”

When the discussion shifted to education, Education Committee Chairman Edd Houck pointed out that, “There really has not been a percentage change for K-12 since 1998. It has remained basically constant.”

What was most interesting is that staff presented the Compound Annual Average Growth from FY1998 to FY2010. Listed were the state programs that increased more than the 5.85% annual growth in revenue. What follows in a list of the programs and their growth:

Car Tax 14.7%
Child Support Enforcement 13.9%
Debt Service 11.0%
Comprehensive Services Act 10.2%
Aid to Localities – Police Dept. 9.8%
Indigent Defense 9.2%
Medicaid 7.5%
MHMR Grants to Localities 7.0%
Student Financial Aid 6.6%
Total General Fund Budget 6.0%

Why isn’t education on the list? The compound annual average growth of public education’s share of the budget was less than that of the growth of the budget – despite enrollment growth, expansion of pre-school programs, and new burdens on public schools such as NCLB. The growth for public education was slightly less than 5.85%. This refutes the claims of our enemies that education spending is out of control.

Given the size of the budget hole, there appeared to be consensus among those present to cut public school funding. VEA will fight cuts, but if they must be made, we will fight to make them temporary rather than permanent, with an eye on restoration of funding as we come out of the recession. We will also work to ensure attention to pupil equity.

Cuts presented to the committee included increasing class size, decreasing state support for school employee health care insurance costs and reducing the state share of SOQ funding from the current 55%.

In contrast with the House, the Senate seems willing to look at the revenue side, possibly revisiting recent tax cuts, to lessen the severity of the cuts to public education. While support for permanently reducing state support for public education seems broad in the House, the Senate leadership is resistant to that method of addressing the current budget shortfall. Hopefully, the Governor will align himself with the Senate in this regard.

Please encourage any non-members at your school join us. it's not too late. While we can't guarantee a future job, we can guarantee support and strength during these difficult times.

Thom

New Teacher Day

On August 12, the the crackerjack RCEA membership team met all of the new Roanoke County teachers on the cleverly named "New Teacher Day" at Hidden Valley High School.

Uniserv Director pat wood and RCEA Secretary Tammy Wood discuss last names.

heather Blevins and RCEA Elementary School representative Kenya Huffman talk third grade shop. Heather and Kenya both teach third grade at Herman L. Horn Elementary.

Making contact with a new member, Theresa McGuire, Bud McWhorter, and Kim Bibbs work the table.

It was time to lay back while the new teachers were in meetings.

Extinction of a Species

A friend of mine, Joe, chided me today for not adding new content to this blog for quite some time. I took his ribbing in stride and agreed with him that new additions are long overdue. So beginning today (at 12:25 am) after taking the summer off, I'm going on a new content blitz. Beware!
~Thom

Another friend of mine, ex-RCEA President Bud McWhorter, presented me with a most amazing gift. At an estate sale over the summer, his wife uncovered a treasure-trove of papers from the 1960's. At first glance the papers didn't look all that unique, but upon closer examination, the McWhorter's were in possession of the October 1963 edition of the R.C.E.A News. Bud has entrusted me with that newsletter along with two NEA newspapers from the 1963-64 school year as well as an NEA Journal from 1960. I plan to feature the two NEA newsletters a little later on in my content blitz, but I thought I'd focus a bit on the RCEA News.

The times were different. John F. Kennedy was the U.S. President, a sad thought knowing how soon his life would end. Segregation was the practice and the law in Virginia. Already in Virginia, students were being denied public school education (Prince Edward County)with rankle and dissent bubbling to the surface. The RCEA was a strong professional organization back then, but it faced the challenge of unification. Back then, membership in VEA and NEA was optional. However, out of the 603 RCEA members, 594 also chose to belong to VEA and 445 joined NEA. The feeling of the RCEA Executive Board was that..."only by participation in NEA could teachers hope to change policies that they are not in accord with."

The newsletter was professionally published with content collected by local association building reps. The newsletter was packaged and edited by a man I respect immensely, Dr. Fred R. Eichelman. Dr. Eichelman was a career teacher at Northside High. He taught government and ran the school newspaper. Dr. Fred is also the father of our very own RCEA member, Carol Webster-the dramatic English teacher at William Byrd High School.

In that newsletter, Dr. Eichelman opined a passionate defense of our profession. I transcribe it here for you, today's professional. I believe that what Dr. Fred wrote of 45 years ago, is just as relevant today.

Extinction of a Species

It has been said that the world would not end "with a bang; but rather with a sigh." Teaching as a profession could also well end this way.

A profession is defined as "a calling or vocation; especially one that requires mental learning and dedication" - dedication to become a successful teacher, the feeling of being called to duty.

We are now playing witness to those who wish to "debunk" this as trite sentimentality and those who may be someday responsible for the "death of our profession."

We tend to ignore those who will not join our professional organizations, those who will not pitch in to help our association leaders to set high goals; and reach them. We ignore those who will not go the "extra mile" to help in programs designed to improve instruction or to better community relations, just as we ignore those too intellectual (so they say) to take an interest in School-Community affairs and the building of citizenship by showing an interest in local as well as national government.

By ignoring this minority group we are most guilty of all. Dedicated people will spread their dedication and loyalty to others. Professional people want their colleagues to share ideas of loyalty in service and high standards in work.

The critics of education associations are vocal as are the critics of education in general. If we honestly feel we are members of the most important profession open to man, then we owe it to our community, our children, and to ourselves not only to be participating members of all three associations; but willing to speak out in answer to our critics.

The "Teacher's Union" in New York City* has caused its members to be classed as "non-professional" in the eyes of the public with a leadership status in the community that now may be considered "nil."

If we are indifferent to the job ahead of us, then teaching will slowly become extinct as a profession- just as extinct as the DoDo, the brontosaurus, and the round kitchen table.

F. R. Eichelman
October 1963

* {Editor's Note: Dr. Eichelman may have been referring to the one day teacher's strike in New York City called by rival teacher organization, American Federation of Teachers. The AFT was the sole bargaining agent for teachers in NYC back then, and they were being squeezed by both the education board and the state. The strike was a one day affair but led to chaos as students were left unattended in their classrooms all day. For the record, the NEA-the largest national education association- opposed strikes as being a counter-productive tool.}

{Click for large image}

In addition to that article by Dr. Eichelman, the R.C.E.A. News also provided a historical look back at public and private school education in Roanoke. I'll bring that article to you in its entirety soon, but I thought I'd leave you with a historical glance back at public schools and and teacher salaries. Again click on the picture for a larger image.

You may want to check out a couple of things. First, a Roanoke County teacher was paid $27.18 a month back in 1871. Those teachers worked on average of 4.5 months out of the year. By 1945, the salary had crept up to $1350 a year. By 1960, that had more than tripled to $4354.91 (Editor's Note: my first salary back in 1982 was $10,500 in Greene County, VA).

The chart had a perplexing notation. It took me several minutes to figure out what "W" and "C" stand for in the chart. Soon, it dawned on me. The early 1960's in Virginia were especially racially charged; however, segregation was still taken as a matter of fact. That would change soon. In this chart, the "W" stands for "White" and the "C" stands for "Colored." In 1960, there were 28 "White" schools and 4 "Colored" schools.

One other thing that interested me is how many schools there were in the county back in 1895 for example. If the figures are correct, there were 77 schools (57 White/20 Colored) in the county back then serving 3419 pupils. That's an average of 44 pupils per school. I suspect that most were one room schools. Those one room schools must have remained open until around 1925 when consolidation must have occurred.

So that's my look back at the RCEA in 1963. It's amazing how much times have changed, but how some things remain the same. I'll leave you with a little filler that Dr. Fred put on the last page of that issue.

The emphasis on good grades has become even more intense this year. Now the problem is not only to provide more schools and teachers, but to graduate 90 percent of the students in the top 10% of the class. :)

~Thom Ryder

Trouble in France

In France the battle is not over activity fees; it's over jobs.

Trouble in France

Here in Virginia, the issue is activity fees. Teachers were concerned after learning of a decision to erase all activity fees for the upcoming school year due to litigation brought against the school system by concerned parents.

The RCEA is extremely concerned about how the decision to nullify the fees will negatively impact the instructional program. Teachers may have to do without certain basic supplies or dig even deeper into their own pockets in these difficult economic times to provide the supplies the county no longer can afford.

We are also concerned about how the erasure of these fees, which will have a major financial impact (yet to be determined), will impact future salary considerations. As people are fond of saying, "The pie is only so big."

The RCEA will be vigilant and appropriately outspoken.

The State of the Budget

The State of the Budget

The school board budget summit on March 6 was an exhaustive session that delved into every nook and cranny of the 2008-09 school budget.

The school board meeting got off to a fine start when news broke (thanks to Rob Jones of VEA) that the House of Delegates has withdrawn their myopic education funding scheme that would have effectively band-aided the state’s budget on the financial back of public school education. However, the news wasn’t all cheery. Seemingly as retribution for their “concession”, the House ripped any support for teacher raises from the biennial budget. In fact, more support for state employee raises was factored back in as support for teacher raises was erased. This issue is not dead. We will not lie down(or lay down for that matter) and will continue demanding state support for teacher compensation.

It had become apparent to RCEA members who have attended recent school board meetings that the RCEA salary proposal, where we asked for a 4% across the board raise and a scale adjustment of 1%, was being taken seriously. However, it didn’t seem to be carrying the support needed for passage. There was also some differing financial information regarding how much our proposal would cost. Considering that and in order to preserve the greatest possible raise for our employees, we withdrew the scale adjustment language in exchange for flipping the cash from that scale adjustment provision back to our across the board proposal. We did clearly make the point, however, that the Roanoke County teacher compensation scale is weak in the middle steps and will need to be dealt with in the future.

It would be irresponsible to announce a final salary percentage at this time since the state and locality have not finalized their budgets, but there is broad consensus that school employees will be able to receive a healthy raise this year. The coming years, after the new money from the recent real estate tax reassessments flows through, may end up being a more difficult climate for pushing through any kind of raise. We will have to fight that battle at that time.

We must also guard against the Roanoke County’s supervisors dropping the real estate tax rate. A one or two penny drop could seriously affect new monies coming to the school system and consequentially any potential raise we may enjoy. We will continue monitoring their deliberations and seek meetings with the supervisors to let them know our needs as Roanoke County’s largest employee group.

So by and large…the state of public school education in Roanoke County is good right now.

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.