Public School officials describe educational ‘crisis’ point in teacher attrition

With the lights down low Greg Drescher makes the public school case that the time is NOW to begin implementation of system-wide pay hikes. Photos/Roger Bianchini

During a Tuesday, February 19, joint budget work session, Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Greg Drescher could only bring himself to describe the learning environment in his school system as “almost a crisis”. However School Board member Donna McEathron later took the assessment a step further, telling the county supervisors “We’re IN crisis mode”.

The crisis is a continually high number of annual teacher defections to higher paying school systems leaving county schools with from twice to nearly four times the number of inexperienced teachers considered “healthy” for a school system – and a consequent “downturn in academic achievement” among the system’s students. 

At the point of the school board’s presentation seeking a total of $2.4 million in additional operational funding was a seven-year history of staff attrition and a joint County-Schools compensation study recommendation on how to fix the problem.

Related Story: Warren County School Board calls special meeting

The problem on the school side includes that seven-year trend of losing a minimum of 60 teachers per year – last year the number was 72, Drescher reported. Those numbers indicate an average annual loss of 10% of the system’s instructional staff. So if your humble reporter’s old-school calculating (counting on fingers and toes) is correct, that means Warren County Public Schools lost 70% of its instructional staff over that seven-year period.

Which explains another disturbing number – no school in the system has less than 43% of its instructional staff with less than five years of teaching experience. Three schools were cited at 74%, 68% and 58% of its staff with five years or less teaching experience.

Drescher was complementary of the system’s younger teachers, but observed that it takes time to reach your teaching potential. “We’re a wonderful training ground and have been for a number of years,” he told the county supervisors.

So the bottom line is that requested $2.4 million school system budget hike, with at least $1.4 million of that going directly to either teacher and support staff salary increases ($1,089,000) or anticipated benefits-related insurance coverage increases ($310,000). Those increases would be phase one of a three-year implementation plan to meet the compensation study recommendations on necessary changes to cut into the teacher retention problem. Year two costs are projected at $812,294 and year three at $423,811.

Drescher noted that none of the suggested salary increases were earmarked for administrative staff, but rather teachers and support staff including bus drivers noted as one of the lowest paid positions in the system.

School Board member Jim Wells noted that even with year one adjustments some staff would see their salaries raised only to the 50th percentile level. Drescher noted that teachers would climb into the 60th percentile range with the projected salary hike.

And if you’ve been complaining about the PCA (Power Cost Adjustment) now upping your monthly Town electric utility bills another operational cost estimate unrelated to salaries is a $225,000 annual jump in electric bill costs system wide.

“These are our basic needs to get the job done,” Drescher told the county’s elected officials holding the school system’s purse strings. Public Education is the County’s largest individual budgetary expense. Charts presented in a power point indicated a 24% to 32% slice of the county financial pie over the past decade; that slice ranging from $23 million to $34 million since Fiscal Year 2009.

Drescher pointed out, and County Board Chairman Dan Murray agreed, investment in public schools in a wise investment in the community. Drescher cited an $11 return on each dollar spent on public education. That return comes in many forms, from general financial investments like home purchases, taxpaying and general investment in the local economy by financially and socially stable graduates settling in their home community.


Murray, who came to this community from New Jersey with Interbake when it built here, observed that companies looking to relocate or expand operations take a hard look at the quality of a community’s public schools, among other variables.

And while the County has done an admirable job on capital improvements facilities construction and renovation over the past 15 years – including one new high school (Skyline), one new middle school (Warren County Middle), one state-of-the-art renovated middle school (Skyline Middle), one renovated high school (Warren County), and two renovated elementary schools (E. Wilson Morrison and Ressie Jeffries) – the debt service associated with those six projects has led to a squeeze on operational funding.

Opening the County side of the budgetary presentation, County Administrator Doug Stanley observed, “There has been so much focus on capital improvements – I heard from Greg last year that “We need to focus on human capital.”

And the County is facing another $1.1-million expenditure to begin implementing the Paypoint HR Compensation Study for another 207 employees throughout other county departments. The County spent a total of $68,000 on the compensation study – $34,000 for County departments and $34,000 for the school system.


In summarizing the County’s budgetary goals for FY 2020, County Administrator Stanley listed: 1/ maintain current levels of service; 2/ stay competitive with staff salaries by implementing multi-year compensation plan; 3/ maintain progress on capital improvement projects (next up for schools are a projected $3.5 million in renovations to A.S. Rhodes); 4/ hold the line on real estate taxes.

How, one might ask, do you achieve the first three, while holding that line on real estate taxes?

Well, several sources of assistance were listed. For one, construction of the new Warren County Middle School came in “a couple million dollars” under budget leaving that money available, likely for the anticipated $3.5 million cost of the A.S. Rhodes renovations.

On the salary side some state assistance appears available. Drescher explained that if a 5% Cost of Living (COL) increase is implemented over a two-year (biennium) period, the state will aid in funding that increase. Since the system implemented a 2% COL increase last year, it appears the state will cover a 3% increase – a little over $510,000 – implemented in the coming budget year that meets the 5%, biennium standard.

But if a tax hike were required to meet, not only the school system’s needs but the County’s desire to begin implementation of its compensation study across the board while maintaining service levels, is the public will there to support the move?


Statistics presented indicate that in comparison to its six neighboring regional communities – Shenandoah, Frederick, Fauquier, Rappahannock, Clarke and Page – Warren ranks 7th of the 7 counties in school operational funding.

Questioned after the 5:30 p.m. work session adjourned, Board Chairman Murray said that while he could not speak for his board, he would vote to provide the necessary revenue to meet the school board budget request.

Another clue was offered during the Public Presentations portion of the regular 7 p.m. supervisors meeting. Bob Hill addressed his attendance at a recent departmental budget work session and an encounter with a county teacher: “After moving here I met a teacher who told me she received a 25% increase in pay by leaving Warren County to teach in Page County … If we are not going to have competitive wages we will lose staffing, like in social services, so please do your job, stay on top of it. That is the best I can ask and hope to receive as a citizen.”

Well that’s two votes – one citizen and one board member – to follow through on the County’s own initiative to stem the tide of defecting professional employees. Time will tell how the bulk of public opinion goes and how that opinion impacts Murray’s board colleagues.

Royal Examiner’s camera was there. Watch the meeting here: Board of Supervisors hold budget work session with Warren County School Board