My name is Brian Wheeler. I want to share a few thoughts with this
Board who tonight will provide direction to the Superintendent as to how
he should proceed in building our next school budget. Then I also want to
give you a brief update on the Faulconer project adjacent to Murray
Elementary.
First and foremost I want to encourage you again this year to direct
Dr. Castner to present a fully needs-based budget. PERIOD. Ask for
reduction strategies only AFTER you get a presentation of what will be
needed to address this School Board's priorities.
I also have some priorities I would like to see addressed in this
budget. First, teacher compensation. The School Board has been provided
enough information during this past year to implement changes to the
competitive market for teachers. Our teachers need more than a 2.8% raise.
Albemarle County Schools should break from the past compensation formulas
and establish our competitive market to be all school divisions in
Virginia, and then we should set our salaries at a level that matches the
top 25% of those schools. You set as a priority that the market be
reevaluated this year. Human Resources made their recommendations earlier
this month and they should be addressed specifically in this budget with
your direction tonight.
Second, while the state is not paying its fair share to support
education I think we should make it plainly clear to the public, and the
Board of Supervisors, what that is costing Albemarle. I would suggest we
add an informational line item in the budget materials that represents the
state debt related to inadequate funding of the Standards of Quality. When
we present this budget to the public, let's tell them each year how many
millions of dollars Richmond is forcing us to raise locally to meet even
these minimal standards. I think this is a small but important step we can
take to show the public that the educational debt is mounting.
Third, we should start setting aside some money in a reserve fund. We
should not continue the practice of holding back funds from our
principals' operational budgets in the middle of the year. The impact this
had on our schools last year was well documented for the board and the
public.
Fourth, you should ask for a recommendation to increase the class size
emergency relief allocation. It was lowered to 2 FTEs this year and we
have 7 classrooms in the County with 27 or more students. If we doubled or
tripled the allocation, would our principals be better equipped to improve
student-teacher ratios in grades with large enrollments? I think they
would and that we need the additional flexibility for staffing.
Finally, Faulconer Construction. Faulconer is preparing a final site
plan for their heavy industrial facility next to Murray Elementary. It
will soon be time for this School Board to get their questions answered
about this project. We expect Faulconer to submit their site plan before
the end of the year.
At the same time, and on a separate track, the Ivy Community
Association is continuing its lawsuit and appealing a recent circuit court
decision to the state supreme court. That lawsuit is about the zoning
administrator's determination that Faulconer is eligible to operate on any
light industrial site in Albemarle. The community believes Faulconer is
heavy industrial and that the County made a mistake in giving them the
green light to operate in Ivy. Their use is totally incompatible with the
surrounding community and has the potential to jeopardize the safety of
the children attending Murray elementary and the public traveling on
Morgantown Road and Route 250. Thank you.
