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PW schools facing millions in budget cuts
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Prince William County (Map, News) - Prince William County School Board members are preparing to slash more than $20 million to balance their $858 million budget next week, which could lead to smaller pay raises for teachers.
Despite the cuts, teachers will receive a pay increase and the school board will have enough money to fund the initial construction planning for an 11th high school, board Chairman Milt Johns said.
"Obviously, there's going to be some additional significant cuts that will be involved," Johns said. "With almost 80 percent of our budget being in the area of salary and benefits, a significant portion of the savings will have to come in those areas."
Prince William County supervisors have cut the proposed increase in the tax rate by 4 cents since the school board adopted its budget last month, prompting the system of 72,000 students to overhaul its financial plan.
School administrators are expected to brief the board Monday on potential cuts to make up the money and will make an official presentation Wednesday night. The hottest question will be how much of a raise teachers can expect.
"I'm still hopeful we will be able to provide salary increases that would be comparable to our neighboring schools," Johns said, noting Fairfax County teachers will receive pay raises of about 4.7 percent. "I'm hopeful we would be pretty close to that."
The supervisors are expected to be able to cut the budget more easily because of reduced enrollment projections, which already have been slashed by 40 percent. The school enrollment dropped by more than 1,000 students as the county's high-profile illegal-immigration crackdown has produced a sharp drop in children from families in which English is not the primary language.
In all, the final spending plan is $38 million, or 4 percent, less than Superintendent Steven Walts' original $896.2 million budget, school spokesman Ken Blackstone said.
dgenz@dcexaminer.com
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2:47 PM MST on Mon., May. 5, 2008 re: "PW schools facing millions in budget cuts"
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4:36 AM MST on Sat., May. 3, 2008
re: "PW schools facing millions in budget cuts"
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Prince William County Teacher said:
PWC Schools are last or next to last in comparison with 10 other school systems in the region on teacher salaries. A PWC teacher who goes to Arlington Schools now will get $8,000 plus increase in their pay. We are having trouble attracting the best and the brightest to Prince William. All of us work long hours and commit ourselves to doing everything to make our students successful. We deserve a reward at the end of the day and enough money to actually afford living in this area. Countless PWC teachers are living in Stafford, Fredericksburg, Fauquier, and Culpeper just to find a reasonable place to live. When do stop leaving behind all the teachers who make NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND work? It's time to approve a 5 to 6 percent salary increase for the teachers in Prince William County Schools. That's the only way to start to catch with the surrounding school systems in Northern Virginia. - UNDERPAID PWC TEACHER
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Examiner Reader said:
Whatever budget is adopted, the school board needs to monitor all expenditures by Dr. Walts with extreme vigilence. The allegations of fraud and abuse by Dr. Walts and his administration, which included Keith Imon and Keith Johnson, come from the the New York State Comptrollers Office. Their job is to review financial records and to make determinations based on findings. The numbers either add up or they don't. Their office made many recommendations so that the taxpayers of Greece, NY will have future systems in place to prevent the kind of abuse and fraud perpetrated by Dr. Walts. He would like to "spin" all of his New York controversy as "conspiracy theory"; however,that is simply not the case. No one can motivate two completely independent agencies,the New York State Comptrollers Office and the EEOC, to create "conspiracies". Both offices have strict criteria which need to be met before recommendations are made and actions taken. Think about it for the sake of PWCS children.
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