Teachers in Prince William County will make more money but confront bigger classes in the fall, after the county school board unanimously approved more than $25 million in new cuts to Superintendent Steven Walts’ budget.

The plan includes a 4.8 percent raise for teachers, with an increase in middle and high school class sizes by half a student.

Reducing class sizes had been a top priority for the school board this year, but building a new school and raising teacher salaries to stave off staff defections won out.

The school board saved more than $5 million by turning a proposed reduction in class size into a boost, which helped preserve the pay raises.

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“We tried to protect our salaries the best we could to stay competitive,” board Chairman Milt Johns said.

School officials also will have to make $1 million in unspecified cuts to the administrative budget, which is not expected to trigger layoffs.

Teachers originally were expected to receive a 6 percent pay increase, but board members decreased it by one-quarter to save almost $8 million.

“No cuts were made easily or lightly, but I am proud to say that we avoided any layoffs and have only minimal job reductions,” Walts said.

The $859 million spending plan will address another top priority: startup costs for a sorely needed new high school in the western part of the county, where overcrowding has led to so many portable classrooms at Brentsville High School that students need a trailer with bathrooms.

Teachers had urged the school board to reduce class sizes and had hoped for bigger pay raises, but say the budget was the best that could be imagined this year.

“I think everyone would have liked to have seen a salary and compensation package that would have placed us in better standing in the Northern Virginia region,” said Megan Link, president of the 4,000-member Prince William Education Association. “We lose folks to our closest competitors ... every year.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com