Ongoing staff challenges prompt action by School Board

WCPS Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch (left) and WCPS Personnel Director Shane Goodwin (right) present for action an item to increase the hourly rate for homebound instruction. The Warren County School Board approved the item during its Wednesday, October 19 meeting. Photos and video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

To attract more licensed teachers to the Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) homebound instruction program, the Warren County School Board voted 4-1 to approve an increased hourly rate to $40 from $25 during its work session on Wednesday, October 19.

School Board Chair Kristen Pence, Board Vice Chair Ralph Rinaldi, and board members Antoinette Funk and Andrea Lo voted to approve the part-time hourly rate increase for individual and group homebound instruction, while board member Melanie Salins voted against it.

WCPS Director of Special Services Michael Hirsch explained that there are multiple student populations served by homebound instruction, including students with disabilities and students who have significant medical issues.

“Homebound support is not a permanent placement — not by any stretch of the imagination,” Hirsch said. “Our goal is to get kids back in school every day; it is temporary.”

He estimated that about 50 to 60 Warren County students receive this support at some point in the school year. And for homebound students with medical issues, there is a 50-percent reimbursement from the state, Hirsch said.

WCPS Superintendent Christopher Ballenger said administrative homebound instruction also may be provided to students with disciplinary issues.

In presenting the action item to the School Board, WCPS Personnel Director Shane Goodwin said the $25 per hour rate at the program’s inception was helpful in attracting teachers to provide homebound education.

However, over the past several years, Goodwin said that WCPS has had trouble attracting certified teachers to provide homebound instruction, which is a part-time position for licensed Virginia teachers. He said that an increase in the hourly rate of pay could spur more interest in the program.

An hourly pay raise also would compare more favorably with surrounding divisions, said Goodwin, who noted that Clarke County pays $30/hour for homebound instruction, while Frederick County pays $34.50/hour, and Winchester pays $35/hour. And even despite those higher hourly pay rates, Goodwin said the school divisions still have challenges filling homebound education positions.

Goodwin said that while the proposed hourly rate increase is just above the rate offered in Winchester, “I would like to remind the board that a great deal of individualization has to go into the planning for instruction and also for the assessment of the work, and then, of course, there’s travel to take into consideration.”

“This is just another way to reach out and recruit people to the program and help out with the program at a rate comparable to the counties around us,” added Ballenger.

Goodwin said WCPS has a highly mobile workforce; 75 percent or more of WCPS employees do not live in Warren County, so they may not be interested in working homebound instruction and traveling more. “And post-COVID, it’s a little more difficult to get people to go into other people’s homes,” he said.

Salins, who sought to justify the additional expense, pointed out that the $40 hourly rate for homebound instruction would increase 60 percent and would put the WCPS hourly rate 15 percent above Winchester’s hourly rate and $10 above Clarke County’s. “What extra are we getting for this money,” she asked. “It’s a very large jump all at once.”

“We don’t actually have enough teachers as we’d hoped, or we wouldn’t be presenting [this item] tonight to serve the number of kids who need homebound,” Goodwin responded. “Without these folks, they’re not getting any services.”

“I get the fiscal question,” Hirsch said, “but from my lens,” attracting a licensed general education teacher to work with and develop a relationship with a homebound student from his or her school “would be gold.”

Following a motion by Lo and a second by Rinaldi, the motion carried with Salins the sole nay.

Rinaldi said the topic can be revisited to determine if the increased hourly rate is working well or if the situation needs further addressed.

More hiring needs remain

In another hiring-related action item, the School Board voted unanimously to approve the creation of a WCPS financial analyst/deputy finance director position for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year.

“Due to an increase in state and local requirements from the financial office, it has been determined that a financial analyst position is needed to support the growing demand for this office,” said Ballenger, who noted that the financial analyst will work under the WCPS Director of Finance and is budgeted by staff turnover.

During their work session portion of the meeting, School Board members also discussed the challenges WCPS continues to face in filling vacant teacher positions.

Goodwin told the board that several critical teaching positions still need to be filled, “and we have received limited applications for these open positions.”

As a potential solution, Goodwin presented the idea of working with an outside agency to secure teacher candidates in critical need areas, such as math, English, and special education. For instance, the school division currently needs five math teachers at the secondary level, he said.

And currently, Goodwin said, there are 16 employees teaching extra blocks. “And while that means they are being compensated, they don’t have planning time during the day,” he said. “And we know as educators… that they will experience fatigue.

“We need teachers now; we have not had a lot of success in finding candidates,” said Goodwin. “Would you be interested in forging a relationship with a company outside of how we normally do business? We are all looking for the same people; we are all looking to fill the same positions.”

Funk and Salins (above right, with Pence and Rinaldi to the left) weren’t keen on the idea of hiring an outside contractor to find qualified teacher candidates.

Salins suggested that rather than hiring outside contractors, why not use that money to pay the teachers doing the work? Funk, meanwhile, who said she’s “not a fan of contracting out,” said such duties should be handled in-house.

Funk also suggested that maybe another human resources person with a marketing background could be hired to handle teacher recruitment and retention. “I understand your struggles 100 percent,” she told Goodwin. “We can do so much in-house if we just use our resources properly.”

Funk also acknowledged that the WCPS Personnel Department is small, and recruiting is a full-time job. “Maybe we should have another person to focus on recruitment and retention,” she said.

Teacher sign-on bonuses to work in highly critical areas like math, science, and special ed also were discussed, and Rinaldi suggested the idea of offering stipends similar to those received by coaches.

In conclusion, Pence said that Goodwin should bring up the issue again during the School Board’s November work session and include ideas about how the board might be able to help him.
In its other action item, the board voted unanimously to remove the gender specification for awarding the Warren County Educational Foundation Scholarship and the Thompson Scholarship.

Going forward, the two students at each high school with the highest academic GPA may receive the scholarships regardless of gender.

WCPS Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Heather Bragg said the scholarships traditionally have been awarded at each high school to the male and female students with the highest academic GPA who met the scholarship criteria.

Click here to watch the School Board meeting in the exclusive Royal Examiner video.