STAFFORD — The Stafford County School Board approved a 5% raise for all school employees in the county.
The across-the-board raise will cover teachers, bus drivers, administrators, and the superintendent which will cost the county a total of $10.6 million.
“I am happy that we are giving out a reasonable raise,” Chairwoman Patricia Healy said. “There are a lot of challenges ahead but today is a day to celebrate.”
Teachers with 13 or more years of experience will receive a six percent raise instead of the five percent.
The school system is also adding 83 new positions which will cost the county about $5 million. The School Board projects that they will add 400 students before the start of the 2019-2020 school year. The nurse scale will also be adjusted to the teacher pay scale.
“When you think about it we’re adding half of an elementary school to the enrollment projections,” Falmouth representative Sarah Chase said.
The Stafford Education Association had originally asked Superintendent Scott Kizner for a 5% pay raise in November during a closed-session meeting with the School Board.
“We have a lot of educators who are talking about how five percent would significantly change their lives,” SEA President Christian Peabody wrote in an email to Potomac Local. “They [teachers] are empowering each other and gradually becoming more vocal about speaking out to fight for their worth and their division.”
Six of the School Board members voted in favor of the School Board’s FY 2020 budget. Hartwood representative Holly Hazard was the only dissenter in the vote.
“We have a lot of needs that need to be met,” Griffis-Widewater representative Jamie Decatur said. “We need to develop a funding strategy every year that is predictable and sustainable. Today I am happy but tomorrow we still have a lot of work to do.”
Hazard stated her reasons for voting no at the meeting which included reasons such as concerns of future local government funding, growth and per-pupil spending and addressing the ramifications of the Board’s votes over the past year.
“I am pleased that the FY20 School Board budget includes a 5% across the board salary increase for all employees,” Hazard said. “However, I must balance those statements with the reality that this 5% salary increase was made possible by the additional state funding. I do not see a commitment to “get out ahead” of “what the others are doing” from Stafford County. I still cannot get the math to work that the county transfer includes both a 5% across the board raise for all employees and maintains the same per pupil expenditure for the additional 417 students projected to enter our schools in August of 2019. This budget is a “School Board budget” and I do not believe that it addresses several critical areas – mostly related to growth and plans that have been, in my opinion, thrown out by the Board in recent months.”
The Board of Supervisors will now need to appropriate the funds to the School Board if supervisors vote in favor of the county’s FY 2020 budget at their next meeting on May 7.
The Board of Supervisors agreed to raise the real estate tax by two cents in order to pay for the teacher raises after some supervisors thought that the current tax rate of 99 cents per $100 of personal property wouldn’t cover the entire cost. The tax now sits at $1.01 per $100 of assessed property value.
“I know classes are overcrowded and people are leaving. In my humble opinion, we cannot afford a five percent pay raise at the 99-cent rate,” said Falmouth supervisor Meg Bohmke. “We are not where we need to be in Stafford County. I cannot support the 99-cent rate because it digs too much into county and school budgets.”
Some supervisors were frustrated that some School Board members and staff failed to attend some meetings to help iron out the issues in the budget.
“I cannot condone the nonparticipation in this budget process that the School Board has shown,” Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Snellings said.
The motion to approve the $1.01 rate passed 4–3, with Rock Hill Supervisor Wendy Maurer, Garrisonville Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer and Snellings voting no.
