County gets schools opening update; Social Services summary, mixed 911 staff result among other business

At the September 1 County Supervisors meeting, Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Chris Ballenger gave a detailed summary of the planning process to assure maximum safety for students and staff as the county’s public schools move toward their September 8^th opening in the continuing COVID-2019 Coronavirus pandemic emergency response situation.

As of September 2, Warren County continued to be on the lower end of pandemic cases statewide, with 394 cases reported, 22 hospitalizations while holding at six deaths attributed to the 2019 strain of Coronavirus. Virginia as a whole has reported 122,542 cases with 2,641 deaths and 9,678 hospitalizations attributed to COVID-19 out of the nation’s 6.04 million cases and 184,083 deaths.

Ballenger cited social distancing plans for in-school aspects of the reopening and school bus transportation, along with virtual learning programs that will continue to be utilized in coming semester through a rotating school attendance system.

WCPS Superintendent Chris Ballenger briefs the supervisors on Fall Semester plans to accommodate schools reopening safely and efficiently during the ongoing Coronavirus-2019 pandemic emergency response. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video by Mark Williams

“I don’t think there was a school in the commonwealth that was ready for March 13^th,” Ballenger said of the statewide Phase One Emergency Management restrictions leading to early school closings last semester. However, he assured county officials that will not be the case in the coming semester in which students will be required to produce results to achieve desired grading as everyone copes with an altered educational environment perhaps unprecedented in our lifetimes.

Interim County Social Services Director Beth Reavis presented a “Big Picture” overview of the county’s social assistance programs and situation, as well as notice that her successor as Social Services Director, Jon Martz, had been hired and this would likely be her final report as interim director.

Reavis made an impassioned plea that the County’s social services staff be included in future upward salary scale adjustments. She noted an overall trend of what she said was underpayment by as much as $20,000 less than comparable employees regionally, and even when compared in county to school system social workers. She presented numbers indicating Warren at the bottom of five neighboring counties in average employee salaries, from $20,000 and $17,000 less than Winchester City and Frederick County to $10,000 less than Shenandoah County and $4,000 less than Page County.

Interim County Social Services Director Beth Reavis makes her final report a pointed one, presenting not only county social service statistics and funding streams, but also a request for staff salary scale adjustments, which are comparatively low in an emotionally wearing job she told the supervisors.

“These women and men face challenges and situations that most people can’t even imagine,” Reavis wrote in her report. It was a report noting a 10% rate of poverty among county residents, with 14% of the community’s children living in poverty.

Reavis reported that a bulk of county social services funding of $55.6 million for three essential programs serving 8500 “unduplicated residents” Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF came from the state or federal level, with a local match of $82,000 or .01%. Another $1 million was generated into other energy assistance, child care subsidies, foster care and adoption costs, with $3 million in administrative costs, including salaries, taking up the bulk of local funding expenses.

And speaking of salary scale adjustments, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office got a mixed result in its request for an upward salary scale adjustment for its 911 dispatcher staff budget with two new positions to be added this year.

It was another long day for county officials on Tuesday starting with a two-hour-20-minute open session, followed by a 3-hour closed session discussion of Town-EDA litigation, CARES Act Funding, and the County Administrator hunt, followed by briefer work session updates on a joint County-Town purchase of a Judicial Sharing Module for the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and an amendment to the County’s Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance to accommodate state changes.

On a motion by Cheryl Cullers, seconded by Delores Oates, the board unanimously approved two new positions in the current budget at a cost not to exceed $100,000, while delaying implementation of a requested salary scale adjustment from step 5 to 7 at a cost not to exceed $30,000. The board indicated a desire to identify revenue streams from which to hike the pay scales in the coming budget year, if not sooner, before committing to the pay scale increase.

“At least they’ll know its coming,” Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter said of the board’s desire to fund the pay scale hike.

The board did unanimously authorize the expenditure of an additional $200,000 in COVID-19 related emergency response staff expenditures, raising the authorized total pandemic related funding for county governmental emergency response to $500,000 from $300,000.

County Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Rick Farrall makes a point about how the County is funding its staffing response to the COVID-19 pandemic emergency declaration.

See these reports and discussions among other business conducted September 1^st in the supervisor’s first meeting of the month in this Royal Examiner video: