The Montgomery County Public School Board held its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. The 2019-2020 school board budget was the subject of discussion among MCPS employees.
The proposed budget from Superintendent Mark Miear totals close to $6.2 million with $4.9 million in salary enhancements, $1.9 million for 23 additional staff, and money for eight new school buses, health insurance, technology infrastructure and numerous other items.
The Transportation Department asked the school board to consider health insurance for school bus drivers and bus technicians.
Adding this benefit to the budget could help with the retention of bus drivers at a time when bus drivers are in short supply and expensive to train. Fleet technicians have had to drive school buses, themselves.
Citing safety, John Barnes, a Transportation Department representative, said, “Please do not let another budget cycle go by. This job is no joke.”
Instructional Aides also requested respect for their hardworking jobs and attention by allowing them to participate in the Virginia Retirement System, or VRS, which delivers retirement and other benefits to Virginia public employees.
Administration assistants’ representative Rhonda Cromer spoke to the school board members on behalf of the employees who she described as “hardworking” keeping the school day running smoothly by helping MCPS staff, communicating between the school and parents.
She stated that the budget needs to account for salary increases to bring MCPS’s administrative assistants in line with those in other school divisions.
Cromer said, “We are a group waiting patiently for an increase in salary scales across the board.”
Another group are MCPS nurses who are salary-exempt. Instead, they are contracted for 6.5 hours a day.
“We are more than the keeper of Band-aids,” Robin Hilton said.
Hilton pointed out that school nurses are concerned with the physical and mental wellness of every student. They have a vital role in handling medical necessities of students, being first on the scene of emergencies, and forming trusting relationships. In addition to paperwork, nurses accrue hours of training to maintain their nursing licenses without compensation and no VRS.
“Our group of twenty is a good place to start in this budget,” Hilton said.
Miear said, “It takes brilliant financial minds to figure out the compliance with state salary guidelines. Luckily, this is a reassessment year and we will hopefully see significantly more money. This is the first school district I have worked in that did not have VRS for every staff.”
The Virginia Education Association requested three priorities before finalizing the school board budget.
While it is good to have teachers in a better salary scale and proposed increase, additional funds are needed to bolster the salary scales.
Health insurance needs to be a quality and critical component with no increase in deductibles.
More staffing is needed as a significant investment for the students.
Miear offered to provide the costs of employee requests for the school board’s review before the next meeting.
School board members accounted for their $81,253.00 in salary and benefits.
They agreed this public service requires a lot of meetings, workshops, and conferences.
“It has been thirteen years since the school board had any raises. It is way overdue to be compensated above the salary of $4,800.00,” District D School Board member Jamie Bond said.
District G School Board member Mark Cherbaka added, “We all agree this job is a civic duty. This service comes with a level of sacrifice and compensation is needed. Pay of the school board should be some incentive so people will want to run for school board.”