Mathews County’s historic courthouse was a sea of red Tuesday night, as teachers and their supporters turned out en masse for the Mathews County Board of Supervisors’ first budget public meeting of the 2019-2020 budget year.

In the past, such meetings have seen attendance by only a handful of department and agency heads, but this one was standing-room-only.

Teachers spoke passionately about their love for their profession and for Mathews County, but decried the loss of qualified teachers and the inability to recruit new ones because of a salary scale that they said is the lowest in the area.

“Last year we lost six professionals to better paying jobs in other school systems,” said Thomas Hunter Middle School teacher Allie Bridge Robins, “because for a relatively easy commute they can make significantly more money.”

Robins said that teachers had for years “admitted that keeping up with bigger divisions is something we struggle to do,” b...