Budget crunch time in NK, CC
New Kent school officials have a plan to end the county’s bottom-dwelling status among neighboring school systems when it comes to starting pay for first-year teachers.
That plan entails proposing 8 percent salary increases for each of the next three school years, but all hinges on whether or not county Board of Supervisors members, who control the purse strings, buy into the proposal.
An average 8.1 percent teacher pay raise is part of a proposed $26 million budget for 2008-09 that county School Board members will advance before supervisors later this month. The figure is about $2.7 million more than the current year’s $23.3 million budget.
School officials will be asking supervisors to contribute close to $1.1 million in new county money to help fund the proposal. Of that figure, $971,000 is to be applied to the salary line.
The $1.1 million in new dollars, if approved, will up the county’s overall contribution to almost $10.8 million. New Kent schools received close to $9.7 million from the county for the current school year.
During a Feb. 3 work session, School Board chairman Joe Yates said that if supervisors agree to the plan, New Kent schools “will be more than competitive” three years from now.
“I think [supervisors] will do their best to help us, but they don’t have a money tree in their backyard either,” he said.
School Board members opted for the three-year approach after learning New Kent ranks last among the Richmond region’s 15 school systems in terms of starting teacher pay. And apparently the county’s plight cannot be improved in a single year. School budget director Ed Smith said that assuming if other systems in the region provide 4 percent raises for next year, New Kent would still be last even if the county ups pay by 9 percent.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” School Board member Gail Hardinge said, reacting to Smith’s news. “Other school systems responded to the teacher crisis by giving bigger raises. We’re still getting teachers who have opted not to go to higher paying places.”
To account for an 8.1 percent average pay hike next year, Smith said he proposes to adjust New Kent’s current pay scale by removing the bottom three steps. The current fourth step would then become the first with a 3 percent cost of living increase added on.
Under the proposal, a first-year teacher in New Kent next year would earn $35,877. Teachers at the top of the pay scale would earn $56,492. Under the scale in effect this year, a first-year teacher makes $33,174 while those at the top or 30th step take in $52,234.
“We’ve got to get competitive or we lose our competitive edge,” Smith said.
New Kent school officials usually propose across-the-board pay increases for all employees, but not so this year. While the 8.1 percent average increase also covers paraprofessionals (teacher aides), other school employees, including administrators, are slated for 4 percent salary hikes.
State money in the proposed budget is pegged, for now, at $15.2 million, which is an increase of about $1.5 million. The state contribution is based on a projected student enrollment next year of 2,755.
Smith said the proposal includes $550,000 in new operational costs with most of the money aimed at the new high school and school bus/county vehicle maintenance garage. Two new custodians will be needed for the high school, which is 100,000 square feet larger in floor space than the current high school, along with a groundskeeper and HVAC specialist since the new school’s systems are computerized, Smith said. The vehicle garage will need one new mechanic/parts clerk and an additional secretary.
New teaching positions in the proposal include special education reading, math/English resource, and half-time art at New Kent Elementary; reading specialist and half-time art at Watkins Elementary; math specialist at the middle school; and Spanish and half-time French at the high school.
Smith said an expected 13.5 percent hike in employee health insurance costs along with rising fuel costs are also forcing budget increases.