The School Board met twice last week with a seminar on Monday and a regular meeting on Wednesday. The seminar covered student test scores (available in a recent press release), a budget overview, and a plan for self-evaluation.
The budget overview included an item comparing annual leave/holidays for 10, 11, and 12 month employees. I was puzzled by the choice of information used for comparison. To cost out dollars per hour, the 10 mo. teacher’s salary was taken from the maximum pay scale (and given a Master’s Degree supplement) while the 12 mo. principal’s salary was averaged between the lowest and highest pay scale (and taken from the year before maximum annual leave goes into effect). Also, while teachers are required to work an 8 hour day, they were credited with only 7.5 hours, a policy minimum. When the results were compared to neighboring counties, according to the information presented at the meeting, Fluvanna’s 12 mo. employees (administrators) potentially work 4-5 days less than any other division included in the comparison. Fluvanna’s 10 mo. employees (teachers) work the same number of days as most of our neighbors.
After the budget overview, I again asked the School Board review the expenses of last year with an eye toward approving a more detailed budget (for 2018) than the broad categorical budget approved for 2017. The Board was told that looking at last year’s expenses would be difficult because we were operating two different (financial reporting) systems and the format was different. I repeated the advice of the well-regarded School Efficiency Review which noted that Fluvanna’s School Board should approve a detailed expenditure budget to comply with the Code of Virginia. Mr. Rittenhouse was not at the meeting, but among those present there was little support for my request. From comments made, I think most Board members are concerned that our involvement in a more detailed budget goes beyond the scope of our responsibilities and usurps the expertise of the superintendent.
The subject came up again indirectly at Wednesday’s meeting. After being informed that the school budget would accommodate a potential $140,000 loss of state salary funds by making reductions in other areas, one Board member wanted to know where the reductions would come from and another member, recalling Board involvement in budget cuts early in her tenure, suggested Board involvement in these decisions, also. I appreciatively seconded their input!
Near the end of Wednesday’s meeting (the last item from Monday was a School Board self-evaluation, agreed to by all members, and hopefully including feedback from the Fluvanna staff survey) all voting was smooth sailing until the approval of policy updates. The motion made to approve the updates was never seconded, so the motion died. It was unexpected and I’m not sure what happens next. The policy updates included the leave/holiday descriptions at the beginning of this post, so I was not in favor of approval. While I’d like to see adjustments made to address my objections (of course), one Board member who might have seconded the motion wasn’t there, so the same vote may simply come up at the next meeting and make it through. Chances are you can score a front row seat to find out in September!
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