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1. Are we getting a raise?
No, currently the General Assembly has not approved a state budget. This has made the local budget approval process very difficult. Our approved school board budget is seeking additional money from the amount dedicated to schools by the Board of Supervisors last year. This amount is roughly $600K. About half of this money is to go toward a step increase for all employees. However, at this point, the Board of Supervisors is not supporting this additional funding. Other county employees are not proposed to get a raise either.2. Will I get credit for the year worked on the salary scale?
The contracts that went out recently do give you credit for your year of teaching. However, you will make the same amount of money in 2014-15 as you did in 2013-14.
3. Should I sign my contract?
Not signing your contract could only put your position in jeopardy. While you may not like the terms of your contract, it will be difficult to work towards better working conditions if you don't have a job.
4. What is the contingency funding policy?
This is the clause that is on the contract that mentions the need for state funding to fulfill the contract. Since there's not currently an approved state budget, technically Wythe County does not have a guarantee to have the money to fulfill the contracts for the 2014-15 school year. According to our VEA contacts this is a fairly standard clause in local contracts around the state since the General Assembly has yet to adopt a budget.
5. What can I do to help the situation?
You can contact your state delegate and senator to urge them to adopt a state budget immediately. You should also request that the adopted budget provide increased funding for education. You can attend local Board of Supervisors meetings to show support for education. You can speak in favor of funding for education at the BoS meetings.
6. What's the deal with the new 20 day contract form?
The 20 days have been converted to 150 hours by multiplying the 20 days by 7.5 hours per day of work time. This was done to be consistent with the hours that were made up with snow days this past school year. Those 150 hours were then broken into the categories listed on the contract. The top part lists the non-student days that are built into the calendar - 7.5 hours were given for each of those days to make a total of 84 hours. The remaining 66 hours were then broken into three categories - PD, Duties, and Workdays. This is time we must work outside of the calendar days. PD in our instructional areas was targeted as a priority; therefore this category was given the most time. The PD section has changed from 3 days to 33 hours. The Duty section has changed from 3 days to 18 hours. The Workday section changed from 1 day to 15 hours. This section was increased to help get credit for the extended time we already spend at school grading papers, planning, etc.
7. How can I achieve the 33 hours of professional development?
We understand that finding, paying for, and attending 33 hours of professional development outside of your school days will be difficult. We have asked this question and will ask again.
8. Why is the privilege of having refrigerators and microwaves being taken away?
The reason as we understand it is that the SB no longer wants to fund the expense of running the classroom refrigerators and microwaves. The estimated cost we received was approximately $10,000 per school year (150-200 fridges X $50 per year to run.) The idea of a fridge fee doesn't appear to work due to manageability issues.
