Morgan Everitt’s effort has paid off — at least for now.
Everitt, an administrative assistant at Brooke Point High School, told the Stafford School Board on Tuesday night that school support staff members like herself can’t easily afford to live in the county.
Support employees do a lot of work and shouldn’t have to sit and watch as teachers get preference for pay raises, she said.
“We’re the grease of the machine. We’re what helps keep it up. We want to do our job. Please let us stay in this county and do our jobs,” said Everitt, who was wearing a green T-shirt that said, “Support the Support Staff.”
After hearing from Everitt, who lives in Stafford’s George Washington District, and others — some of whom were worried about taxes — School Board members voted unanimously for a $503.1 million budget for the next fiscal year that includes an average pay raise of 4 percent for support staff.
Projected revenue for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would be only $484.8 million, which leaves a funding gap of $18.3 million. School Board members hope that gap can be closed over the next few weeks, but it’s not likely that will happen.
The School Board now will present the budget to the Stafford Board of Supervisors on March 12. The supervisors, who have the final say over local funding for schools, would need to approve education spending as part of the overall county budget. That vote is scheduled for April 15.
The School Board’s spending plan is $42.4 million more than the current budget of $460.7 million and $12.5 million more than what Stafford Superintendent Daniel W. Smith proposed last month. It includes $19.8 million for teacher compensation, providing for an average 6 percent salary increase and a bump in starting teacher pay from $50,500 to $51,500.
School Board members would see a pay raise in the approved budget, as well. Member salary would go to $20,000 from $12,000, and the stipend for the chairman would increase by $800, bringing that figure to $2,000. Those raises would start Jan. 1.
The spending plan also calls for the addition of the equivalent of 124.8 full-time positions, including 66.4 teaching jobs and 36 paraprofessional slots. The school division is already the largest employer in Stafford with 5,404 workers.
Gabriella Irish, the School Board’s student representative, said the education budget shouldn’t “undervalue” students and staff just because county supervisors might not approve it.
“The request should be what we need and everything that we need for everyone and then work down from there,” said Gabriella, a junior at Stafford High School.
School Board Chairwoman Maureen Siegmund said that the school system built a five-year plan for improvement after hearing that education in Stafford wasn’t what it used to be.
Officials shouldn’t pretend that student population growth — and how much money it takes to serve that population — is surprising when they know more people undoubtedly will move to Stafford, she added.
”It is no longer sustainable to expect above-average results with below-average investment,” Siegmund said.
At a work session on Tuesday before the School Board’s regular meeting, another financial topic came up: the possibility that the Trump administration’s spending cuts could endanger federal funding that comes to the county.
“How can you make us feel better, Mr. Fulmer?” Siegmund asked Chris Fulmer, the schools’ deputy superintendent and chief operating officer.
Fulmer said it’s not like Stafford officials are going to immediately cut millions of dollars in aid from the budget and face the reality of somehow making that up.
But they do want to be ready.
“So we want to move forward as if there’s not going to be significant changes,” he said, “but let’s kind of plan for the worst at least to have that in our back pocket.”
