County budget balancing act

Nobody ever wrote a folk song about buying new telephones for schools.

In recent weeks, we've reported about the challenges of building both the school budget and staff morale as local teacher salaries lag behind those in neighboring communities.

Tuesday evening, the Orange County School Board presented a budget to the board of supervisors that was $2.76 million greater than anticipated funding.

That budget allowed for the first wave of a proposed salary increase for teachers, a mandated increase in the local contribution to the Virginia Retirement System, a handful of new positions, new computers and new school phones.

Annually, when school administrators and board members present their budget to the county's taxing and budgeting authority, there's always a measure of political jockeying.

The school board is charged with the well-being of the school division while the supervisors must balance county-wide interests and dozens of other citizen services and departments that cost tens of millions of dollars.

Of course investing in our children is always money well spent. It's just a harder sell to taxpayers when that investment comes in the form of salary increases, retirement contributions, school buses and telephones.

Certainly, all those things have an impact on the quality of education we provide, even if not in a politically convenient way.

In a pre-budgetary survey conducted of school staff, most ranked salary increases at the top of their budget priorities. Our guess is if we polled anybody in the private or public sector–particularly those who have had salaries frozen, hours reduced or pay slashed–their answer would be the same.

Superintendent Dr. Bob Grimesey indicated that the proposed salary increase represents a community commitment to retaining teachers and an ongoing investment in local education.

"I think it will send a powerful signal and [teachers] will see we're committed to a five-year plan," he said. "This isn't about a one-year raise; this is supporting teachers over the next five years. It gives confidence to teachers while tempering the impact on the community."

Dr. Grimesey and the school board hope the community will support the plan, the first year of which is included in the budget at a cost of about $973,000. For support staff, a similar program would cost approximately $652,000 more as well. Those are costs that will occur annually to implement the plan.

"It's about community values and people deciding to what degree the quality of schools is worth an increase in taxes," Dr. Grimesey told school board members last month.

In a perfect world, teachers would be paid like superstars. Opening a child's mind and instilling a lifelong desire of learning is one of the most valuable contributions anyone can make to society.

But when money and times are tight, it's a tough sell--particularly to those in the community who also haven't gotten raises or who have been asked to do more with less.

Ultimately, we, as a community, need to decide how much we want to invest in our schools–whether that's for increasing teacher and staff salaries, adding positions or even buying new telephones.

Let the budget balancing act begin.