The drought continues for County teachers, but not School Board overseers.
Based on recent presentations by County and School Board officials, teachers’ compensation will stay about the same in FY 2016 or continue its downward trend relative to teachers in neighboring Metro area jurisdictions. After noting that Fairfax County is still the second wealthiest county in the country, the same officials distributed a report showing our FCPS teachers this year rank just fifth out of 10 area jurisdictions in starting salaries, eighth out of the 10 in salaries at the beginning of the tenth year of service, and ninth out of 10 (just above Prince George’s County, Md.) in terms of maximum salary achievable on the pay scale. In 2016, the FCPS advertised budget calls for a miserly one percent “market rate adjustment” to teacher pay, while the County Executive’s proposed budget reflects even less, i.e., an insulting 0.84 percent MRA for all employees. This comes on top of constant teachers’ pay scale freezes for the last 4 or 5 years--thus a decline relative to other jurisdictions. On top of the stagnating pay, the Board and Superintendent noted the continuing increase in class sizes the teachers are handling—e.g., classes in the low-to-mid 30s at the time of the presentations. In a decision whose timing is mindboggling, the Fairfax County School Board just decided to grant itself an 85 percent pay hike, from the current $20,000 per year to $37,500 per year--for a part-time job. By my math, that is about 100 times the pay scale increase proposed for teachers (85 percent vs 0.84 percent). Granted, the comparison is less than pure apples to apples. Still, given years of pay stagnation and increased workload, it seems insensitive at best, and a thoughtless blow to the already low morale of those teaching our youth, work that should count for more.
New topic! Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m., the Reston Association Board will hold its second quickie hearing on its latest land deal. This time, the Board has declared a national emergency requiring immediate purchase of the Tetra property on the spillway at little Lake Newport. This “hearing” is to finalize the referendum question and Letter of Intent to purchase a dilapidated, 35-year-old office building and nearby parking lot already covered by an RA easement, for $2.65 million. The next thing you’ll see is a ballot in your mail due back in a couple of weeks so they can begin borrowing the big money—if people do not speak up on Thursday evening. The quickie referendum alone will likely cost $30-70,000. Opaqueness is again the order of the day—executive sessions with no independent appraisal for a property currently assessed by the county at $1.248 million, less than half what RA wants to fork over. This is not money RA has, but money they want to borrow in our names—the first debt in RA history!
This transaction, like the last land swap, has been done in secret. Unlike the other deal for which there was a clear purpose, this time there is none—other than vague references to wanting additional meeting space with a lake view! This is a property for which there is zero development potential because of its location and, not surprisingly, nor is there anyone else interested in buying it. So, why would RA or anyone in their right mind, agree to pay more than twice its assessed value?
Thursday’s hearing at RA is scheduled for 6 p.m. Not convenient for people with jobs, is it? But, let’s hope RA members will turn out to stop this mischief.