“What a different conversation than we were having at the beginning.”

That’s how Mathews County Superintendent of Schools Nancy Welch summed up discussion during Tuesday night’s work session on the 2021-2022 budget, as the school board moved from a bare-bones proposal that included school consolidation and possible classroom layoffs to one that calls for salary increases, no consolidation of the county’s elementary and middle schools, and no reductions in staff.

In normal years, board chairman John Priest said, the school board has gone ahead with a budget of what the division would like to have in the coming year, and then adjusted it downward once cuts had been made by county supervisors. He pointed to such things as the 3- and 4-year-old preschool initiative as one of the cuts made in years past, as well as proposed new positions that then had to be eliminated from the final approved budget.

This year, he said, “we’ve developed the budget the other way around,” starting off with an austerity budget with the hope that once the economic picture improves or enrollment numbers increase, items could then be added back before the budget is finalized.

In previous budget discussions, Priest said that it would be better to let employees know that their positions may be subject to elimination early on in the process, and then come back later to inform them that their jobs were saved.
“Maybe we ought to reverse our thinking,” he said.

Vice chair Jeanice Sadler agreed with Priest that the school board shouldn’t start off with a bare-bones budget. “I would like to be a little more optimistic,” she said, adding that it is crazy that the school board has to adopt a budget before the state has finalized its numbers. The school board’s current budget proposal was based on the governor’s draft that came out in December; that budget is likely to change once the General Assembly makes its revisions.

“Ask for it,” school board member Desmond Smith said of the more optimistic budget. “You’ve got to ask for it and see what happens.” At Rappahannock Community College where Smith works, he has seen the arrival of additional state monies to compensate for the pandemic, and believes that K-12 schools will experience the same.

Initially, Welch’s draft budget called for reductions in administration for a consolidated elementary/middle school, as well as the loss of two elementary teachers, the CTE teaching position at Thomas Hunter Middle School, one bus driver and reducing the number of months in annual contracts for several other positions.

During the public hearing that preceded the budget work session, the only speaker was elementary school teacher Stacie Wiatt who spoke out against consolidation and any instructional cuts. Much like the Jan. 19 school board meeting, where colleague Joy Drummond addressed the school board, Wiatt indicated that she was speaking on behalf of her fellow teachers; approximately 20 were in attendance Tuesday night.

Although enrollment has declined significantly as the division has gone to virtual instruction during the pandemic, “students will continue to return … and when they do, they deserve the best,” she said. Tuesday was the first day of hybrid instruction and Wiatt and other teachers reported increasing numbers as a result. The county’s elementary school has “an excellent administrator” who is always available to his staff, and she fears that would be lost if the division moves forward with consolidation.

“There have to be other solutions to this budget crisis,” she said.

In the new budget, Welch was instructed to add the preschool initiative for 3- and 4-year-olds, an item that had been included (and removed) in the past few budget cycles. A strong advocate for this initiative, board member Linda Hodges said that early intervention is crucial to breaking the cycle of generational poverty.

She didn’t receive universal endorsement from fellow board members. Sadler said she would much rather focus on the K-12 students the division currently has, giving more emphasis on core subjects like math and reading, and especially expanding the teaching of phonics.

On the issue of salary increases, Welch said there has been discussion in the General Assembly about increasing teacher pay, either through a 4 percent increase or a one-time bonus. The new draft will include a 2 percent raise as well as two steps on the salary scale (the equivalent of another 2 percent).

Normally, the school board and supervisors gather for a joint dinner meeting where the budget proposal is presented. That had been scheduled for Feb. 2. However, due to concerns over COVID-19, that dinner meeting has been scrapped. Instead, Welch and Priest will meet with their counterparts in the county (supervisors’ chairman Mike Rowe and county administrator Mindy Moran) to go over the proposal.

The school board will take up the budget proposal again at its Feb. 16 meeting, where it is expected to adopt it and send it on for county approval.