School Board prepares to send budget request to county supervisors

School Board members and administrative staff ponder instructional needs and costs versus what is likely to be approved in funding by the county’s elected officials. Photos/Roger Bianchini

At a final work session before voting on a budget proposal for the coming fiscal year the Warren County School Board and administrative staff revisited the bottom line that has brought them to “crisis mode” – operational funding shortages that has led to a tidal wave of staff turnovers that has jeopardized the public school system’s educational efficiency.

“It’s nothing that money can’t solve,” observed Superintendent Greg Drescher at the Wednesday afternoon work session in the school board’s administrative office meeting room.

Needing to be solved is a seven-year average 10% loss of experienced instructional staff, leaving the public school system with 30% of the experienced teaching staff it had seven years ago.

And while Superintendent Greg Drescher brought some good news to the table of the February 27 discussion – there will be no hike to staff health insurance rates previously estimated to add as much as $310,000 to staff-related operational funding – other factors counterbalanced that good news.

Included in those factors is a projected $470,000 cost for the purchase of new math and social science textbooks and the loss of an estimated $150,000 in state government funding.

The request to implement phase one of salary changes suggested by county consultant Paypoint HR remained at $1,089,000. The county supervisors spent $68,000 on the countywide Paypoint HR compensation study.

School Board member Jim Wells reiterated his point from the recent joint supervisors-school board budget work session that initial implementation of suggested salary adjustments for the school system will only bring school system instructional and support staff salaries to about 50% of where they need to be to become competitive with surrounding communities.

As noted in the recent joint budget work session in comparison to its six neighboring regional communities – Shenandoah, Frederick, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Clarke and Page – Warren ranks 7^th of the 7 counties in school operational funding.

From left, board members Arnold Williams, Doug Rosen and Jim Wells ponder the numbers with colleagues as Superintendent Greg Drescher fields questions.

Studying a list of consultant-suggested teaching and support staff additions, Wells asked “Which ones are critical” in anticipation adequate funding to realize full staffing and salary implementation will not be forthcoming from the county’s elected officials.

After investing millions of dollars in school capital improvements over the past decade-plus, it will be up to the Warren County Board of Supervisors, holders of the County purse strings, to decide if they are willing to increase county revenue to adequately fund the operational side of the equation to fill its state-of-the-art buildings with state-of-the-art staff.

“They’re not leaving the profession, they’re leaving us,” board member Jim Wells observed of the attrition of experienced instructional staff.

Schools Director of Personnel Buck Smith pointed out the consultant study recommended hiring of 63 additional instructional and instructional support positions – “So it’s a two-pronged attack: salary hikes and getting support positions in the buildings.

As both school system and county officials have commented, “An investment in schools is an investment in the community.”

The school board will vote on its budget proposal to be presented to the county board of supervisors at its March 6 meeting.

Also on the February 27 work session agenda was an update from Assistant Superintendent Melody Sheppard on the projected $3.1-million renovations to A. S. Rhodes Elementary School. Bids on those improvements will go out in March and the project, including a new roof, is anticipated to be completed by the end of July 2020, Sheppard said.

Director of Secondary Schools Instruction Alan Fox introduced Instructional Specialist Heather Bragg and STEM Coordinator Justin Maffei who presented an overview of the needed $470,000 investment in math and social science textbooks. Responding to a question on textbook use by teachers, Fox pointed out that they were more necessary for the new and less experienced (5 years or less) teachers now comprising 70% of the system’s instructional staff.

When a $575,000 number was pointed out on the textbook summary handout, Maffei said, “Yes, we would like $575,000,” explaining the number reflected the system’s “true need” including digital support materials.

Noting the rise of laptop computer use in schools as the digital age progresses, School Board member Arnold Williams asked if the system was nearing a point where the physical textbooks would no longer be needed.

“Not as it is now,” Maffei replied. He added that Virginia public schools were hurt in this regard because while textbooks are now written toward a “common core” curriculum, Virginia has not adopted common core.

See the work session discussion in detail in our Royal Examiner video: