School seeks funds for staff

The scene was more like a ball game than a board meeting last week at the Taylor Education Administration Complex as the Orange County School Board presented its proposed $50.9 million budget to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. More than 100 school staff members attended the meeting, in uniforms of red and holding up 5 percent signs during the presentation, resembling somewhat of a cheering section or peaceful protestors at a big game or important rally.

The signs refer to a proposal that would seek to make the Orange County teacher salary scale more competitive with surrounding counties over a five-year period. The first year of the plan, included in the school board’s proposed budget, will cost approximately $973,000 and will equate to an approximate 5 percent increase for 368 teachers. An additional $652,000 is also included in the proposed budget to give all other school employees not affected by the scale change a comparable salary increase.

District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame said he didn’t know if the county could commit to the five-year salary scale change, which he said would continually raise the salary expenditure roughly $1 million for the next five years. Superintendent Dr. Bob Grimesey said the salary scale proposal would be a driving force during budget discussions each year and would be constantly reevaluated.

District 1 Supervisor Shannon Abbs said some non-teacher employees in the school system felt like they were getting the short end of the stick, while the teachers would be getting a benefit of the salary scale change. School director of budget and finance Matthew Benefield said the same principles would be applied to the other employee scales.

“I’d like to analyze all the scales to make them more competitive,” he said.

The school budget, which is $4.5 million more than the current $46.4 million budget, seeks $20.3 million in county funds, an increase of $2.7 million from the current $17.5 million local contribution. Aside from the salary scale changes, the budget also includes several other optional and fixed cost increases.

Other optional cost increases include an approximate 8 percent increase in health and dental insurance premiums ($271,744); $174,427 to restore instructional assistant positions to the 2008-2009 staffing level by adding seven positions; $20,000 to maintain a full-time athletic trainer (half of which was paid for this year using one-time federal jobs funds); $61,780 to add one science teaching position at the high school (which includes benefits and taxes); $61,780 to add an economics and personal finance teaching position at the high school; $80,566 to expand the Virginia Preschool Initiative to Locust Grove which already serves 18 students at the Taylor Education Administration Complex and will have a little more than half of the cost offset by state funds; $12,479 to create an afterschool detention program for the county’s three secondary schools and $5,438 to cover two stipends for coaches to implement a ninth-grade football program. Currently, Orange County High School is the only school in its district that does not have a ninth-grade team.

Fixed-cost increases in the proposed budget include a $1.5 million increase in Virginia Retirement System (VRS), group life insurance and retiree health care credit rates; $228,000 to hire four elementary teachers, which is a requirement of the state’s K-3 class size reduction program and will be fully funded by the state; $195,000 to hire three instructional technology resource teachers, which is a standards of quality requirement; and $103,493 to increase the transfer to the textbook fund in anticipation of several textbook updates. Several capital improvement projects are also in the proposed budget, including $130,000 for the first phase of teacher computer replacements; $150,000 in ongoing costs to paint buildings in a rotation; $300,000 to replace HVAC equipment; $320,000 to replace four outdated buses and $260,000 for the first phase of an upgrade to the phone system, the latter of which was a cause of discussion.

Abbs asked about the phone system upgrade, saying supervisors also are in need of a similar upgrade.

“We’re in the same boat with our phone system,” she said. “Ours cost $100 each, yours cost $500 each in every classroom. Why the difference?”

School director of technology Darrell Hatfield said per a conversation with the county’s information technology department, the county phones would actually cost $250 each while the schools are $217. He said some major differences are that the county already has the infrastructure in place for the system, wheareas the school system would need to update their infrastructure, which is 12-years-old. Also, he said the schools need twice the number of phones and seven times the number of switches, which are more expensive than the phones themselves. He said the new system will give greater reliability, greater voicemail and transfer capabilities, paging and call forwarding.

“In the last year, our phones have gone out 25 times,” he said. “We can’t buy parts.”

Following the discussion, school board members encouraged supervisors to contact them with any questions or if additional information is needed. County administrator Julie Jordan is expected to present her budget March 1. The school board will next meet Feb. 27.