Retaining teachers a high priority
By Matt Pelkey
This is the second in a two-part series examining education funding in Rappahannock.
Rappahannock County Superintendent Dr. Robert Chappell has had some tough decisions to make.
Faced with dropping enrollment -- projections call for 10 percent fewer students next year than in 2006 -- Chappell last month bucked a long trend of swelling education spending and proposed a budget for 2008-2009 that is about $500 less than the budget for the current school year.
The symbolic reduction came amid cries from the public and the county board of supervisors to cut costs considering the decline in enrollment. And it appears the budget might have been a good degree larger, but Chappell has promised an as yet undisclosed cost savings totaling $415,000. He is scheduled to itemize those savings on Monday.
Even with fewer students in the schools, Chappell must answer demands to beef up education funding. Top among them, according to Chappell and members of the school board, is the need to keep teacher salaries and benefits competitive with other school divisions.
But the balance of reducing costs while retaining teachers and providing students with quality education is one that Chappell has said he can manage.
Maybe as evidence of that, in his reduced budget proposal he wrote in a 3.5 percent pay raise for school employees. He noted, though, that the cost of living increased by 4.1 percent in 2007.
"I'm optimistic that things will work out so that we can give our employees a cost of living increase," Chappell said in a phone interview. "And that's what it is this year, it amounts to a cost of living increase."
He said other superintendents in Virginia have proposed pay raises of more than 7 percent, which he called "unreasonable."
Chappell and members of the school board have typically prioritized teacher salary and benefits when putting together the education budget. This year, however, there has been even more need to provide incentives to keep teachers in Rappahannock's schools.
The cost of teaching in Rappahannock
In presenting his proposed budget to the Rappahannock County School Board, Chappell noted that gas prices increased by about 37 percent in the past year. He said that a large number of teachers live outside the county where affordable housing is easier to find and commute between 40 and 50 miles each day to work. Chappell said that even teachers who live in the county spend a good amount of money on gas by making long drives to shop for items not readily available in Rappahannock, which lacks large stores.
In a phone interview Chappell said that long commutes, housing problems and other factors put Rappahannock at a "pretty significant" disadvantage in attracting and retaining teachers.
"If we don't maintain a competitive edge there, we're going to lose people, pure and simple," he said.
Chappell also said that criticism of the expanding school budget has grated on school employees.
"I do think that when they are subjected to the level of criticism they hear in public meetings, that can be very discouraging to them," he said. "Frankly I am concerned that people would be disheartened by what I think they perceive as constant criticism by a few in the public about our schools."
Even with the disadvantages particular to Rappahannock, Chappell does not believe the schools need to necessarily beat compensation packages offered by surrounding jurisdictions. Citing the county comprehensive plan, he said he simply hopes to move closer to the average of the surrounding counties.
"I just think we need to be viewed as being the type of employer that can provide reasonable incentives for people to work here in Rappahannock county," he said. "To me the cost of living increase is a pretty reasonable incentive."
Rappahannock lags behind the average teacher pay offered by surrounding counties by about $1,500 on average. Culpeper and Fauquier offer better pay -- between approximately $400 and $13,000 more -- at all levels of experience. Madison and Warren counties offer better pay at some levels but not others. Rappahannock beats only Page County in teacher salaries across the board.
Teacher attrition
And in the past few years, about two dozen Rappahannock teachers have left to take jobs elsewhere. According to data provided by Chappell, between 2004 and 2007, a total of 23 teachers left Rappahannock. Five left for Fauquier, two left for Warren, one left for Culpeper, one left for Page, 10 left for other Virginia counties and four left for other states.
Some teachers are even now looking. A survey conducted in a recent state-sponsored review of Rappahannock schools found that 15 percent of teachers were actively seeking employment outside of the school district.
To make matters worse, next year two schools will open in Culpeper and two in Fauquier, providing employment opportunities for Rappahannock teachers considering other jobs.
"We're aware that new schools are opening," Chappell said. "It does increase the openings that are viable for people to consider."
Chappell said he is hoping to keep teachers on staff with his proposed 3.5 percent pay raise.
"I feel like we have a good thing going in Rappahannock and I'm hoping that our people see it that way and I'm hoping that we can get a reasonable salary increase to hold some of those people," he said.
The two new schools in Culpeper -- Eastern View High School and Yowell Elementary School -- will open up 59 new positions, said Marla McKenna, Culpeper schools public information officer. McKenna said most of the positions will likely be filled by teachers already working in Culpeper schools, but open positions will be advertised by the end of April.
Rappahannock has already lost staff to the new schools. Former Rappahannock County High School principal Roger Mello has been hired as Eastern View's principal. And Rappahannock high school band director, Matt Yonkey, who led the band to numerous distinctions, has accepted a job as band director at the new Fauquier school, Kettle Run.
Chappell said some turnover is normal.
"Every school system encounters that kind of thing," he said.
Chappell said Rappahannock was losing more teachers to Fauquier in the mid-1990s. He said he hopes to keep turnover under 10 percent this year.
"Will it go above 10 percent this year? I hope not," he said.
School board member Wes Mills said Rappahannock lost about 10 percent of school employees annually for several years beginning at least in 2000.
He said turnover improved when Chappell came on as superintendent in 2003.
"I think they genuinely saw hope that things would change," he said.
Mills said some of the survey responses in the report "bugged" him. For instance, 59 percent of teachers disagreed that their salary level was adequate for their level of work and experience, and 66 percent of teachers disagreed that salary levels in the school are competitive.
"I think if they took a look at their total package and take-home pay, they would see they're doing better than other counties."
Mills said he was also surprised that 30 percent of teachers disagreed that the schools offer incentives for professional advancement. He pointed out that teachers receive pay increases for experience and advanced degrees.
"Are we rewarding them for advancement and training opportunities? Yes, yes we are," he said.
Mills said that keeping teacher salaries in step with other counties is a priority for the school board.
"The very first thing that happens every year is ... to get a pay raise for the teachers," he said.
And Mills said that increases in the education budget have brought benefits to the students.
"I think we have a lot to offer our students and I think our students are evidence of that because they are able to compete and get into the schools they want to get into," he said. "Anything they wanted to do, we were hoping we would provide that," he added.
The 2003-2004 school-year budget states that "[a]ll our budget requests ultimately are driven by our need for continual improvement in student performance."
To the schools' credit, scores on most state Standards of Learning (SOL) tests increased overall between 2002 and 2007. And while Rappahannock may spend more on instruction per pupil than all of the peer districts identified in the recent state-sponsored review, more students graduating from Rappahannock high school go on to attend four-year colleges than students in three of the four other peer districts. Rappahannock also has a lower dropout rate than any of the four other schools.
Mills said that now the school board needs to be thinking of where costs could be cut that would impact the quality of education the least.
"I want us to be thinking about our priorities because if the supervisors lower the hatchet, I want to be prepared for that," he said.
Public hearing
On March 18 the school board will hold a public hearing on the budget at the Rappahannock high school auditorium.
The school board will make final changes to the proposed budget on March 20 before sending it to the board of supervisors for approval.
E-mail the reporter at mpelkey@timespapers.com.