Superintendent Walts , in his address to the school board Wednesday night said, “For the second straight year, PWCS employees would not receive salary step increases, according to the fiscal 2012 budget proposal. And though there won’t be pay raises, the proposed budget to the school board will include a onetime, 1 percent bonus this will be paid to school employees sometime in the second half of 2012. “Since we wouldn’t have money for raises,”Walts said, “[the bonus] was a way we could do something in terms of compensation for every employee.”
I believe it has been 3 years since the non-school board employees have had a raise. They no longer have any 401k match. There seems to be this feeling that government employees should take their lumps and not complain. Perhaps if the public attitudes were different, getting no raise might be more palatable. These same folks are also being told that their pension is costing a fortune and they will be paying for it themselves, if the legislation goes through.
At what point do people simply decide they are tired of being undervalued? I don’t think we are there yet but it will be coming. Dr. Walts recognizes that employees need some sort of compensation. Good for him to address the issue, even if it is a pittance.
I know of three new restaurants that will be opening in the area. That is a pretty good indicator that the economy is snapping back, finally. How about those county assessments? Any news on those? Maybe its time to raise the rates a little….back to 2007 levels. It won’t happen in an election year.
Moon, don’t know about County Assessments, but got my City one….and land value stayed same, and what once was called “Building” value is now “Building Improvements”.
Jumped $26K for my little house, and looking at the online assessment database for houses around my neighborhood, seems we all jumped around $20K – $26K.
Neat thing changing a wording on the house – if Fair Market Value does not work, then take in reported value of improvements made by others (all those items requiring permits) and then factor the value.
That is quite a jump, Raymond. I haven’t seen mine. I might get my wish to pay more taxes. Ugh.
I went and looked at land rover. No county assessments yet. Mine went up about 17k last year…just the house part. Land stayed the same.
EEEEPPP!! Keep the assessments low. As I don’t want to sell for a few years I’d appreciate a smaller tax bite as it’s only paper worth.
The 1% bonus and no raise sounds fair to me.
Why do you say that? Did you get a raise last year?
This will be the third year county employees (non-sb) haven’t gotten a raise and many of them are doing the work of 2 people.
I don’t care if my taxes go up a little bit so hard working employees get a small raise.
That 1% is a one time thing, for the record. It isn’t a 1 percent raise. Everyone’s raise is frozen. Teachers/staff’ steps are frozen. Co. Employee’s merit increase is frozen and they no longer get their 401k match. I don’t know if the sch. bd side of the house still gets 403b matching or not.
Just because people are public employees doesn’t mean they are not worthy of respect or pay increases. And no, they don’t make more than the private sector.
We’re not going to find common ground here. The 1% raise is a good compromise because for the very same reason you indicated.. It’s a one time thing that doesn’t raise compensation going forward. Raises are more expensive than bonuses so thats why management would rather give out a bonus.
I understand and appreciate that you want takes to go up to compensate more people. It’s your right to have a voice. It’s also mine to oppose that.
I think you are confusing two notions on your last para. I respect teachers and the work that they do but respect isn’t tied into a raise. Raises should be tied into quality and achievement. Turn out good students that know what letter comes after “B” and you can compete against those teachers for a raise assuming their is space in the budget.
Not everyone get’s Cost of Living raises.
The 1% bonus is a fair compromise.
Marinm, “good students that know what comes after “B”? Are these the same “good students” who stay up late WITH their parents to watch the Super Bowl and show up Monday morning without their math and english homework completed? The “good students” with the parents who promise support when contacted because their son/daughter is not doing homework or classwork and interfering with the education of the other students while acting the fool? As the great Bill Parcells said, “garbage in, garbage out”. Holding a standard seven hours a day is washed away during the other seventeen hours when there are different or no standards at all.
No doubt Lucky. Should we flog those parents? Maybe require a license for people to have kids? I understand where your coming from but in our free society kids and parents can do dumb things (even vote Democrat…cry).
We have limited resources. If I was in charge I’d say lets use those limited resources on those kids that we can save, that want to be here, that want to be better. The rest of them can continue to fail and pump my gas for loose change.
Moon,
Our county assessments don’t come out until April.
A 1% bonus is a disgrace…it’s an insult. I honestly don’t know how this country will attract enough quality people to teach with that kind of treatment. In my line of work the average bonus is about 20-25% of the annual salary. Working in the private sector for a company that does well pays and anyone that wants a decent living will see that and never go into teaching and our children will continue to pay. I read somewhere the other day that only 60% of our biology teachers teach evolution…and another 13% actually teach creationism. How on earth is this country going to succeed and “win the future” (yes, I know Sarah Palin does not think this is important and refers to that as WTF) in the sciences if we can’t even get our act together to teach basic science in 40% of schools?
Government benefits are an appealing targe when private industry is flailing. However, salaries and bonuses are much better in the private sector when things are good. So if benefits for government workers are reduced (many choose lower salaries for good benefits) , getting back benefits will be almost impossible after private sector jobs, salaries and perks return,. Then you’ll have public employees, including public safety with low pay and minimal benefits. The difference between government -Teachers, Firefighters, Animal Control, Social Workers and Mental Health and private industry is service versus profit. When you hear ‘you get what you pay for” that is the level of service you chose. When you say “I pay your salary” – well at less than $2k per household you’re certainly not paying too much.
And of course, we’ll never have leaf service here in PWC.
@Juturna, hell, you don’t even get trash service. Move to the City.
Cheer Lucky Duck! He just summed it up perfectly.
@Marin, So how are you going to assess things? Not all kids are equally motivated. Not all kids have parents who value education. So who gets to decide who is a successful teacher? The teacher who has high standards and makes everyone toe the line isn’t necessarily going to win the popularity contest nor is the one who has a classroom full of low achievers.
Let’s leave the merit pay notions areas where the playing field is level and the outcomes are quantitatively measurable. Taking a low achieving kid 4 months along in reading might be a far greater accomplishment than teaching a kid headed to UVA differential calculus.
Juturna, you are right about you get what you pay for. People might be finding that old adage out for themselves a lot faster if things don’t improve.
I am wondering where excellent science and math teachers will come from when private industry pays 50-100% more. As more and more boomers are exiting, (there is no incentive to stay if salaries are level) localities are going to have a very hard time finding replacements in the critical areas.
Twinad, where is creationism being taught? Virginia has a state curriculum that includes evolution in biology.
Why do we persist in holding teachers responsible for what parents won’t do? Is it logical to hold Doctor’s responsible for bad health when we don’t follow their guidance? This is the penultimate political correctness. Parents are the primary educators of their children.
P-e-r-i-o-d.
Maybe after 8th grade they should sign a contract to continue on to HS. It’s very expensive.
I don’t know the answer to that, MH. I can’t remember where I read the stats, but I do remember that those stats were just one sentence in a larger piece. I thought 0% of teachers taught creationism before I read the article.
Well, now I had to go find out more!
Here is a good article on the subject: http://theweek.com/article/index/211627/why-is-creationism-still-being-taught-in-public-high-schools
Interesting.
TWINAD, can you forward me your company info. I’d like to apply for a job where I can get 20-25% bonuses on average a year. I *think* I got a 1% raise last year. I know I took a small pay cut 3 years ago and I’ve just caught up to where I was.. So, if you got something better.. Let’s redistribute! 🙂
@MH, not sure why there is so much hesitation on rating teachers and tying compensation to it. I understand you think it’s a ‘corporate’ model but would you accept the same model in medicine? Obviously patients are different but would you support a raise for all the docs or just the good ones? Shouldn’t we take corrective actions on the bad ones?
Ok, I’ll admit the above is a little loaded but if people are complaining about the current system then it makes sense to fix it. Teachers aren’t happy with raises then we need to find a way to determine who should and shouldn’t get raises. Because, this is not 1st grade where everyone gets a winners trophy. There are winners and losers and I *want* to get money to the good ones and I want to fire off the bad ones (and send them to FFX or Stafford
) I just recognize that we are limited in what we can spend (so whatever goes to a teacher comes out of what is directly spent on a student).
I have no problem taking corrective action on bad teachers. Get rid of them. However, due process must be applied.
I have a problem tying compensation to performance because of the reasons stated above. There is no good metric.
You cannot compare teaching to the practice of medicine. Apples and oranges.
Let’s not overlook other county employees on both sides of the house. They are in the same boat. Non-Sch. Bd employees have it worse than sch bd employees.
I believe that PWC has over 500 police officers. These folks havent had a raise in what will soon be 3 years. How long before they move on to greener pastures? It costs a great deal to train a PWC LEO.
regarding good and bad teachers – you know it when you see it – but it is often hard to document a bad teacher, because there may be nothing specific that they do, just they are not a good educator. And the corporate world is full of dead wood – the way some of the media speak, you would think that dead wood did not exist is the corporate world – but it does. These are hard times – and budgets are being broken all over, I do feel for employees that have not gotten a raise – but this is reality – hold raises off with full employment, or lay off teachers so that others can get a raise – I pick hold off on the raises.
I wonder if the BOCS is going to get another automatic pay raise that wasn’t really a pay raise according the Marty Nohe during the last round. It had been put in place by the previous board. Interestingly, some of the old board members showed up on the newly elected board. Voila!
The best part of this is no more pay raises for the current BOCS!
From the 2011 PWC Fiscal Plan:
“Virginia Statute § 15.2-1414.2 regarding the Prince William Board of County
Supervisors’ salaries states that prior to July 1st of the year in which members of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors are elected, the current Board shall set a maximum annual compensation. These compensation increases were approved by the previous
Board on June 19, 2007. These salary increases are automatic; therefore, in accordance with Resolution 07-515, a compensation increase of 3% effective January 1, 2010 has been budgeted for each member of the Board of County Supervisors. Salaries will increase from $48,012 to $49,453 per annum for the Chairman and from $42,157 to $43,422 per annum
for district supervisors.
c. Service Level Impacts – There are no Service Level impacts associated with this initiative.
d. Five-Year Plan Impacts – No additional increases are included within the Five-Year Plan for the Supervisors. This is the final year of increases, based upon Resolution 07-515.”
Sometimes a teacher is great for one kid and not so great for a brother or sister. It doesn’t mean that the person is bad. My son thought my daughter’s favorite teacher of all time was satan incarnate.
It isn’t just about teachers. It is about bus drivers, secretaries, cops, ALL county workers.
@George, I believe the supervisors have turned down their auto raise the past 2-3 years, to their credit.
@Moon-howler
Not so–I questioned Marty and he took it, claiming it wasn’t a pay raise.
When was this? What I am saying has been recent, like maybe last year. I don’t mean forever.