Although numbers have still yet to be finalized for the division’s current 2023-2024 budget, members of the Mathews County School Board and Board of Supervisors sat down Tuesday to begin discussions about the following year’s budget
Superintendent of Schools Dr. David S. Daniel also gave the two boards a picture of where Mathews is now in terms of staffing, enrollment, academic performance, and other issues. The meeting, which was held in the Brooks Auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School, operated under a time constraint, as supervisors needed to leave to attend a public hearing with the Mathews County Planning Commission.
Daniel began with what he called a “State of the Union/State of the School System” overview. He gave a brief breakdown on the current budget, which has the bulk of its money (68.4 percent) going to teacher salaries and other instructional needs.
That budget, he said, was based on an Average Daily Membership of 875, although current attendance is well below that figure. Current attendance is 819, which means that the division will be receiving less than it projected from the state. Daniel said that Mathews is still waiting for the governor’s office to send a calculation tool to find out exactly what that state contribution will be.
Enrollment, Daniel said, has been in “pretty consistent decline over the last 20 years” in Mathews. He presented a chart that showed an enrollment of 1,289 students in 2003-2004, with numbers decreasing in every subsequent year. Homeschool numbers, he said, showed a large spike during the Covid pandemic and have stayed elevated.
The division, he said, has 224 full- and part-time staff, of which there are 87 licensed teachers. Nearly three-quarters of the faculty and staff reside in Mathews, with many of the remaining 26 percent having some other connection to the community (such as being alumni). “I’m probably the exception,” he said, getting a few chuckles.
He discussed exit data received from teachers who have left the division. Two years ago, three teachers left the division to work for another public school division, with that number jumping to eight in the past year. Daniel pointed out the salaries from surrounding divisions, which are higher than Mathews, especially as they get higher in years of experience. VRS retirement is based on a teacher’s highest three consecutive years of salary and, Daniel said, when teachers get “on the other side of 20 years … folks start shopping around.”
The average teacher salary in Mathews is $58,197, with another $27,792 in benefits, on average (although that figure varies widely depending on the benefits received), Daniel said. Supervisors’ chairman Dave Jones said that the total figure of roughly $87,000 should be emphasized to teachers. Jones also spoke about shifting more money over to the instructional side of the budget and suggested using teacher assistants as substitute teachers.
Teacher assistants, Daniel said, are often assigned to other tasks, with some responsible for an entire grade level and others handling small group remediation. While teacher assistants are sometimes asked to take on the role of substitute teachers, Daniel conceded, it’s “kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Jones spoke of an agreement he said that had been made with former superintendent Nancy Welch on the current budget where teachers would have received a 5 percent raise. That figure was cut to 2.5 percent as the school board adjusted for spikes in fuel and food costs, with Jones suggesting that the county board may have been able to come up with the difference if a good faith effort had been made.
When you get money in teachers’ hands, Jones said, “you’re going to attract better teachers … the more passionate the teacher, the better instruction you’re going to get.”
Jones also brought up the first year of Mathews High School’s participation in the NJROTC program at Gloucester High. Although initial projections were about a dozen students, only two stepped forward to complete the paperwork. Jones said that “the word on the street” was that the county board failed to fund the NJROTC program, which he said is simply not the case.
Jones suggested that the political climate might have something to do with the low number of cadets from Mathews. “Would you serve under this current administration,” he asked school board member and Army veteran Bobby Dobson. School board chairman John Priest called this first year “a trial run” and he expects more students to take advantage of it next year.
Tuesday’s brief but wide-ranging discussion touched on other topics such as chronic absenteeism, student performance on SOL tests, capital needs, and school security.
Jones thanked Daniel and the school board for having the discussion. “I’m feeling very positive about us working together,” he said, adding he has “a much more positive outlook” than last year.
The 2024-2025 budget process gets underway next week when initial budget information is presented to principals and directors. A legislative tour is scheduled for Nov. 9, with the school board’s first budget work session set for Dec. 12. A hearing on the budget will be held in January with a joint work session with supervisors planned for Feb. 6, 2024.