Total to be requested from Board of Supervisors later this month is $457.2 million
The Stafford School Board on Tuesday approved an operating budget for next fiscal year that will take a step towards improving the salary scale for non-licensed service staff.
The board approved by a 6-to-1 vote a $457.2 million budget that includes $3.8 million for implementing Phase 1 of corrections to the service salary scale.
All School Board members voted in support of the budget except for Patricia Healy, Rock Hill District representative. Healy said she has concerns about increasing the ask from the county, “when we know they’re not going to increase our allocation.”
“My concern about asking for more is that it doesn’t solve a problem,” she said. “It creates a problem in our dealings with the Board of Supervisors in saying, ‘We want more,’” than was in superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposed budget.
Board members had considered taking the $3.8 million for the service salary scale from money that the budget would have put towards implementing the third year of improvements to the teacher salary scale.
Taylor said there is a “high probability” that the General Assembly, which is still negotiating the state’s budget for next fiscal year, will provide increased funding to Stafford schools.
That would mean the Board could come back in March and rework the budget to add the $3.8 million back into the teacher salary scale.
But the Board majority decided that approach would make them feel like they were pitting employee groups against each other.
“This is a lot like being asked to choose which child you’re going to feed,” said Alyssa Halstead, the Hartwood District representative.
Elizabeth Warner, Griffis-Widewater representative, questioned why the School Board would not just ask supervisors for the $3.8 million up front.
“This budget is not based on what we need,” she said. “If it was, it would be a heck of a lot bigger (the cost of unfunded needs is $62.9 million, according to Taylor’s January 18 budget presentation). The $3.8 million is to compensate our staff, which is something the county has recognized as important.”
“Why on earth can we not ask for $3.8 million so we can increase your salaries?” Warner continued, addressing staff in the audience.
The budget as approved Tuesday assumes $15 million in new funds from the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, but Chair Maureen Siegmund warned that there is a chance that amount will be lower.
She said there is “an appetite” among some in Stafford to see the tax rate equalized, which would result in less new revenue for the school division.
“That would put us all—every line item on the budget—in peril,” Siegmund said.
She urged the school community to let supervisors know that they want to see the school division funded.
“We want you to keep advocating,” Siegmund said.
The School Board will present its budget to the Board of Supervisors on February 27.
