By a 3-1 margin Tuesday night, the Mathews School Board adopted its 2022-2023 budget, sending it on to county supervisors for their consideration.
The $20.6 million budget request contains a number of unknowns, most significantly, the anticipated amount of state funding. The school board’s budget was based on last year’s biennial budget proposed by former Gov. Ralph Northam which the General Assembly has yet to adopt.
The budget adopted by the school board during Tuesday’s meeting, which was held in the Mathews High School media center, includes a 6 percent increase (5 percent plus one step on the salary scale) as well as adjusting all salary scales to provide for a minimum pay of $15/hour for all employees.
The budget also includes nearly $95,000 to fund an estimated 8 percent increase in health insurance payments. Staff additions would include two career and technology teachers (one at Thomas Hunter Middle School and the other at MHS), a school counselor at THMS, maintaining four additional paraprofessionals at the division’s three schools, maintaining one additional full-time cafeteria support position and adjusting a part-time English as a Second Language teacher to a full-time position to support 504 plan implementation.
In the budget approved Tuesday, local funding would increase by $840,220, from $9.23 million this year to $10.07 million.
School board member Bobby Dobson expressed concerns about the proposed pay increases. With the 6 percent, he said that would amount to a 19 percent pay hike over a span of three years. Board member John Priest countered that the increase is meant to compensate for many years of neglect, where teachers and other employees received little or no pay increases.
“We’re really just trying to get caught up with seven or eight years of backsliding,” Priest said. “I don’t want to slip back at all,” chairman Linda Hodges said, echoing his comments.
Dobson said that he would support a 4 percent raise for teachers in order to receive some proposed state funding and would like to gradually increase the base pay of all employees to $15 over several years, just not all at once.
Priest, Hodges and Lorraine Forrest voted in favor of the budget, with Dobson against. School board member Desmond Smith was not present.
Opening prayer
The matter of opening school board meetings with a prayer was brought up by Dobson. Congress begins its session with a prayer, as well as the Mathews County Board of Supervisors, Dobson said, adding he believes it would be appropriate for the school board to follow suit. He suggested keeping it to clergy from Mathews churches, selected on a rotating basis.
For residents not represented by a house of worship in the county, he said, they could propose having someone from their church perform the prayer “as long as it’s a chartered church and they have a place to practice their religion.”
“I’m a very private person for the most part,” Priest said, adding he would prefer that the school board “keep our prayers personal and private.” “I pray every day,” Forrest said, but agreed with Priest that “I feel it should be a private thing.”
Hodges asked if a moment of silence would be appropriate and Forrest said she had no problem with that. School board members are expected to revisit the issue at next month’s meeting.
At the start of Tuesday’s meeting, principals from the division’s three schools gave presentations on how they are working to overcome instructional loss that has occurred since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Personnel action
Following a closed session, the school board approved the following personnel action: the resignations of Mathews Elementary School art teacher Joy K. Tucker, MHS teacher L. Jodell Rutter, part-time MHS athletic director Al Thomas and teacher assistants Kelly O’Brien and Kathy Davis; retirements of MHS teacher Eli S. Hyman and Barbara van Emmerik; and the appointment of teacher assistants Elsie Carol Owen and Chelsey R. Tripp.
The following coaching appointments were made—George M. Broaddus (JV baseball), JJ Ashberry (varsity softball), Al DeWitt (varsity baseball), Wes Griffith (assistant varsity baseball), Gilbert Coons (JV softball), Tony Forrest (track), Jon Lothian (crew), DeWitt (baseball field maintenance), Stacey Griffith (strength and conditioning).
Volunteer coaches appointed were: Alfred A. Dehoux Jr. (varsity baseball), Ronald D. Morton (JV baseball), Malina Hester (varsity softball), Charlie Crittenden (varsity softball), Sid Foster (JV softball), Jacob Ryan (soccer), Kayla Stearns (soccer) and Tim Ulsaker, Vernon Rowe, Christina Tomcany and Katelyn James (crew).