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Health & Fitness

Board of Supervisors Has NO Money to End Teachers Pay Freeze, BUT

                                            The View from Over Here

    
It is budget time again in Fairfax County and we are again hearing the Board of Supervisors' broken record about a county with an average income of $105,000+ being so poor they again will have to slash the public schools' budget request.  And, new Superintendent Karen Garza (and School Board?) is in full retreat, saying she will further cut personnel costs by continuing for a fourth year the effective freeze of teachers' pay.  (Although one year, the County gave teachers a small raise, but increased their contribution to the retirement fund thus wiping out the raise.)
     Fairfax teachers salaries have dropped in comparison to what neighboring jurisdictions pay.  Meanwhile, the work they are expected to do continues to grow. The time spent reporting on everything they do to the central bureaucracy does, too.  Unlike the Fairfax County Police who get paid more than teachers, the teachers do not get paid for overtime.  Many police officers get paid overtime which boosts their pay to over $100,000 per year. 
     Teacher morale is taking a major hit, and who can blame them?  The politicians talk of their being among the best in the country, but where the rubber meets the road they see little or no appreciation for what they do day in and day out.  In fact, some teachers are talking about taking job actions, i.e., working to their contract requirements and NOTHING more.  This is not something that teachers are inclined to do, especially where it directly affects the kids.  But what option have they, besides going to a jurisdiction which does appreciate them.
     Meanwhile, in resource-starved Fairfax County, take a look a the big new building under construction next to the building that houses Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, her community room, and the County Policie unit assigned to Reston.  This new large building will replace the current 30-year old office building.  The Supervisor will have new, larger digs, and the police apparently will about triple their space.  The Supervisor's public information officer cannot tell me if there will be more police in the new building.  I have a call in to the police. I wonder if the Supervisor is allowed to know?  Taxpayers should be!
     So far, all I know is that the replacement building will have 36,600 sq. ft. as opposed to the 16,000 sq. ft. of the current structure.  2.25 times the space currently used.  In any case, it appears that not all parts of county government are as resource poor as the public schools and their teachers.

                                                                                                           

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