Charles City School Board fearful of employee exodus, cites lack of support for raises in FY2021-22 budget

The atmosphere at Tuesday night’s Charles City School Board budget work session could be described as gloomful and concerning.

School board members sat through an updated budget presentation from Superintendent of Schools Dalphine Joppy as she provided went through new figures for the FY2021-22 budget. Originally, the schools had requested $6,332,251 in local funding from county leaders for operations in next year’s cycle. However, at Charles City’s Board of Supervisor April monthly meeting, County Administrator Michelle Johnson recommended $5,731,185, resulting in a shortfall of $591,066.

Joppy returned to her staff and began working on ways to make up that deficit as part of a recommendation of cuts to present to the school board. Among the recommendations the superintendent presented to the school board include eliminating all requested new full-time employees, eliminating two teachers and one instructional assistant through attrition, removing the proposed pay scales for teachers and instructional assistants, and providing only a one percent raise to teachers.

The one percent raise was an extremely disappointing sticking point for the county’s school board. State funding for Standards of Quality (SOQ) positions would provide a five percent raise over two years if funds were matched at a local level of at least two percent. According to Joppy, the formula used by the state is suited to larger school divisions, meaning the locality would pick up a majority of the costs if they were able to make the minimum contribution of two percent. A two percent raise to SOQ positions would be $111,290, with the locality providing $72,868 of that money. A three percent raise is $166,935, with $109,302 being contributed locally, while a five percent raise is $278,226, with $182,171 being local funds. Utilizing the state formula, approximately 48.86 positions are SOQ in Charles City County Public Schools.

After Joppy’s half-hour presentation, school board members spoke adamantly about the fear of losing employees because of their financial limitations.

“For us not to the funding and to go back and say the same thing over and over again to the teachers, how are we going to attract or retain them with no money?” commented District 3 representative Martha Harris. “We have this energy performance contract that has been praised by Del. Donald McEachin.

“I thought that if we were saving money in the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) then it would go into operating because it would at least balance it out,” she continued. “For us to have this much of a deficit for what we asked for, we’re not going to get new teachers, we’re not going to be able to keep them.”

District 1 representative Joy Harris also expressed disappointment with the lack of support to help employees receive raises.

“I think the thing that makes me feel so angry is because you have these employees of Charles City Public Schools who did not get a raise last year and it bothers me as this pandemic has gone on, they have fought tooth and nail,” commented the District 1 representative. “I’ve seen teachers work after hours and answer questions after hours. They are willing to go the extra mile for your child.

“Fingers get pointed at the school board when we try to show appreciation to the teachers,” Joy Harris continued. “It bothers me that we do these things to try to get an adjustment, just to get them a raise. What bothers me is that we’re not going to retain these teachers. What’s stopping them from going anywhere? There’s nothing for them here unless you actually live here. Charles City Public Schools truly has some good teachers but we’re going to allow them to walk out the door [due to no raises] and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

School board members are hoping that county supervisors will have a change of heart to provide the school system additional funding. Charles City County’s public hearing on the budget is Thursday, May 13, 6 p.m. The county’s budget is expected to be adopted at their regular monthly meeting on May 25.