Teacher to Stafford Leaders: ‘Ya’ll Got to Give Us a Little Bit of Sometin’’

By KEITH WALKER
For Potomac Local News

STAFFORD, Va. — Applause isn’t allowed during discussions and meetings in the Stafford County Board of Supervisors chamber, so a room full of teachers held up little signs, with flat wooden handles and waggled them above their heads when they liked something they heard.

Judging by the sign waggling, the teachers liked hearing their fellow teachers talk about pay raises, overcrowded classrooms and teacher retention during citizens’ time at the evening Board session.

Many of the teachers told board members that Stafford County schools loses about 10 percent of its teachers each year to school districts that offer better pay.

Eric Herr, one of about 25 who spoke to the Board, brought along a visual aid which consisted of two mason jars, a rock, and some pebbles.

Herr’s rock was too big to fit into the smaller of the two jars.

Herr told board members that the rock represented the needs of Stafford County residents.

“The rock is appropriate because this is the rock that our children, our students and society is built upon,” Herr said.

Herr went on to say that the smaller jar represented the school budget and the rock represented the needs of the school system.

“If we can’t fit this rock into the budget, we’ve got a problem” said Herr, a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot.

So Herr put the rock in the larger glass along with a handful of pebbles representing students to illustrate the need for more money to support the school system.

“We can take care of our students. We can take care of our teachers. My message is, let’s put our teachers first. Let’s do our job, take care of our students,” Herr said.

The signs, which bore messages written in red, with felt-tip markers, waggled.

This year’s school board budget include a request for $18.8 million more last year’s $244-million budget.

In a board meeting last month, School Board Chairman Stephanie J. Johnson, told the county board that, among other things, the extra money would be used to hire 15 special education teachers, to reduce class sizes for kindergarten through third-grade students at Ferry Farm Elementary School, and reinstate remedial summer school.

During that meeting, Aquia District Supervisor Paul Milde told Johnson that scarcity of money prevented more finding for schools.

“You know as well as I do that we don’t have $18 million,” Milde told Johnson. “I know you need money, but you know that we literally don’t have it.”

Art Jackson dissented from most of the speakers Tuesday and told the Board he is taxpayer who “puts my hand in my pocket and gives you money.”

Jackson said he has a personal stake in quality education since his grandchildren attend Stafford County Public Schools.

Jackson went on to say that he thought the supervisors and school board members should talk with each other to resolve budgetary issues.

“I don’t think we can afford to have the lack of communication between the school board and this body. I think this body should be congratulated for the work that it’s done on the economic picture,” Jackson said.

Still, Jackson said he was worried about the quality of education in county schools.

“As I go around and talk to children in this community, I’m amazed at the lack of knowledge that they have on basic things,” he said. “History is an unknown quantity to them. When I grew up in the schools, all the classrooms had a picture of George Washington in there. Now we are lucky for them to know who George Washington was.”

Robert Thomas, a Stafford County physical education teacher who has a son who graduated from Stafford County Public Schools and a daughter who attends Mountain View High School, told the Board that teachers needed help if they were to continue giving students a quality education.

“Ya’ll got to give us a little bit of sometin’” said Thomas, who has taught in Stafford County schools for 20 years.

Laughter accompanied the sign waggling.