As the Prince William Education Association celebrates its latest collective bargaining victory with Prince William County Public Schools, the state teachers' union is again looking into the local teachers' association practices and has launched an investigation.
Newly obtained documents show that on May 24, Virginia Education Association President James Fedderman sent a letter to Maggie Hansford, President of the Prince William Education Association, informing her that the VEA Executive Committee met on May 18 to discuss members' concerns. Those concerns included PWEA’s “finances, governing procedures, and operating procedures.” The VEA asked Hansford to produce documentation from meeting minutes, bank statements, bylaws, policies, and information on how the organization elects its officers by June 1.
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Prince William County Public Schools: “After eight months of negotiations as part of the collective bargaining process with the Prince William Education Association (PWEA), a three-year collective bargaining agreement on benefits and terms and conditions of employment was tentatively agreed upon by the School Board’s and PWEA’s bargaining teams. PWCS is hopeful that this agreement will be ratified by the employees in each bargaining unit.”
“The division proposed a contract including a nearly $70 million salary and benefit package of approximately $64 million in increased salary and more than $5 million increase in other wages and benefits. PWEA negotiators did not reach an agreement on the wage proposal before the December 1 deadline.”
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with PWEA on significant benefits that will continue to ensure we are the best place to work,” said Prince William County School Board Chairman At-Large, Dr. Babur Lateef. “We are disappointed that we could not reach an agreement on wages. The School Board and administration are committed to ensuring competitive wages for our employees even without an agreement.”
“The School Board’s bargaining team made an aggressive proposal on wages that would have provided tremendous benefits for employees while maintaining fiscal responsibility. However, an agreement on wages was not reached with PWEA. The PWCS $64 million wage proposal includes the following terms that were not approved by the PWEA:
- A 6 percent average salary increase (in addition to the 2 percent salary increase to be provided to employees beginning in January 2024).
- A maximum 9 percent salary increase for certified staff with 12-18 years of experience as of June 30, 2024, to ensure those employees’ salaries are competitive with peer school divisions.
- For classified employees, an expansion of the salary scale from 2.89 percent to 3 percent between steps, bringing pay equity between the classified and certified pay scales.
The parties tentatively agreed to the following, pending ratification by the School Board, and ratification by employees:
- Paying teachers who teach summer school and extended school year their hourly rates.
- A new short-term disability benefit that covers employees after the first 30 days of employment at no cost to the employee.
- Continuing to pay the same proportional share of any health care premium increases.
- Increased pay for teachers who teach an extra class during the workday.
Increasing supplements teachers receive for extracurricular duties, including the addition of supplements for middle school band assistants, choral directors, choral assistants, and orchestra and drama teachers, and elementary music teachers.
“Our employees are critical as we work together with our parents and community members to launch thriving futures for our students,” said Dr. LaTanya D. McDade, Superintendent. “Our bargaining team worked diligently through this process with PWEA in good faith. We will continue our efforts to offer employees competitive salary and benefit packages.”
Prince William County Public Schools Ombudsman Monique Bookstein delivered her annual report to the School Board of the yearly report of the 2022-2023 school year. Bookstein says this year's total number of visitors was 298, a 54% increase from the prior school year.
Bookstein said the increase could have been because parents, staff, and community members feel they don’t have the means to communicate their issues properly. The organization allows visitors to voice their concerns non-biasedly and seek help in confidentiality.
Bookstein described how she works with her clients. First, there is an initial conversation between the visitor and Bookstein, and the roles are clarified on what Bookstein can and cannot do. Bookstein will then work with the visitor to understand the situation, analyze it, explore options, and discuss next steps.
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“The changes were introduced at the Tuesday, Nov. 14 school board meeting by Chair Babur Lateef (at large) and members Jen Wall (Gainesville) and Adele Jackson (Brentsville). If adopted, the changes would prevent speakers from signing up for two meetings following the meeting at which they last spoke.”
New information published by Prince William County Public Schools shows the Prince William Education Association is pushing for a 17% pay raise for teachers at $364 million, or about a third of the school division's existing salary budget.
The pay raise would cost the division more than it pays for the schools' transportation program, central office, facilities management, and capital reserves combined.
