VIDEO: ‘Super Teacher’ Asks: Why Are You Cutting My Pay?
February 28, 2010
The video is now available of Joel Block’s February 23 appeal to the Falls Church City School Board. A math teacher at George Mason High School, Block won the “Super Teacher” Award last year, selected from 1,200 teachers nominated from the region. In the video, Block asks the School Board why his salary may be cut, when his fellow teachers in Arlington, Alexandria, and Loudon will receive pay increases and teachers in Fairfax County will have a pay freeze.
From Page 1, click “Read More” to watch the 4-minute video.
See also the May 11, 2009 report in the Falls Church Times on Block’s Super Teacher award.
By Falls Church Times Staff
February 28, 2010
The Sun Gazette reports that Arlington school employees, and I suppose that group includes teachers, will not be receiving cost of living adjustments or step increase raises.
http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2010/02/28/arlington/news/nw233b.txt
FYI, the FCCPS School Board will adopt a budget proposal this Tuesday (March 2). The final budget will depend on funding, including the state funding and the local appropriation.
We hope to have a better picture of the state funding by Tuesday- many items and issues were in flux at the state level this past week.
As for specific items, the board conducted a work session this past week, and tentatively decided to put back in the budget request the proposed cuts to employee health insurance (the system currently pays 75% of the cost of insurance, regardless of which plan the employee selects — the proposal to cut was to either change to 70%, or to pay 75% of the lowest cost option. The city currently pays a higher portion of the cost for its workers. Both the city and the school board obtain insurance through the same pool and pay the same costs for the coverage; the difference is how the cost is split between the employee and the system). The board also asked for more information about the PYP program and will decide about that at the meeting Tuesday.
Mr. Block raised some good points to consider, but it appears the situation in neighboring counties is not as positive as was first believed. Also note that many of the discussions in neighboring counties involve proposed budgets, but it will all depend on actual appropriations. For example, the Fairfax County Executive has proposed an overall cut in the local school appropriation, but the school board is asking for an increase. Even with this increase, the board is proposing to cut several hundred positions. The Arlington proposal currently also cuts over 100 positions.
The philosophy so far in Falls Church has been to preserve classroom jobs as much as possible and use some overall cutbacks and reallocation of spending instead. This is different than the idea in some other jurisdictions to instead cut more positions and increase class sizes/decrease class offerings. We also have an issue in Falls Church that because of our size it is more difficult to increase class sizes by a small amount to achieve big $$$ savings.
As noted earlier, the decisions about the budget have not been made yet, and there are good points to consider for both sides of the argument, so stay tuned. The http://www.fccps.org website contains the most up to date information.
Ron
Mr. Block et al:
Many of your predecessors once stood in your shoes and survived. You will too.
First, you mention furlow days yet don’t mention all those ‘professional days’ that your predecessors never enjoyed. They were considered a ‘waste of time’ by many of my professional colleagues. We favored an early June end to the school year — no AC throughout the buildings. Why, even a few of us once designed a staggered 4 day (longer school days) school week for students with the 5th day for planning/meetings/parent conferences. It would have still permitted those artificial Monday holiday celebrations and provided a 4-day weekend every other week for the students/families — think of all the family time it would have created! We thought it would reduce the transportation costs and help the envirionment in addition to creating ‘child care’ opportunities for all kinds of folks (HS kids?)The ‘community’ rejected it as too ‘costly and radical’ even for FC! But before and after day care programs were created.
Second, you bemoan the loss of the taxpayer contribution to your 403(b) personal retirement fund (which, by the way, I once helped get it approved by the school board in “days of plenty”!) During the 1970s, while an employee of the school system (GMHS/MS/JHS), a proposal to create a defined benefit early retirement plan ala Fx County, was considered. A consultant group of staff members (our time and talents – not hired professionals) determined it would be too costly for a small system to maintain over time i.e. too few ‘workers’ to support the ‘retirees’ at a reasonable cost. (See the issues facing the unfunded financial liabilities of many public retirement plans!) We would have settled for a matching 403(b) plan at that time as a meager alternative because we all had become educated about the longterm value of a private account. Group health insurance didn’t cost nearly as much ‘back in the day’ for numerous reasons — mostly limited benefits and less medical techological advances.
As for your “5%” pay cut, there are alternative ways for you to make up the difference. I know there is a huge demand for math tutors in NoVa and one as talented as you should be able to command a minimum of $75/per hour. It’s called be an entreprenuer. Go for it! Don’t beg the taxpayers for it!
Why shouldn’t you get a pay cut? Alot of cities are hurting right now – city employees have been forced to make early retirement decisions and some others may be laid off – why shouldn’t the schools bear some of the burden?
I certainly appreciate the fact that Mr. Block is a well-respected and award-winning teacher in the Falls Church school system. I offer this humble thought: If I were in Mr. Block’s shoes, during these challenging times that seem so unfair in so many ways, I would simply be grateful. Grateful to be motivated to be an excellent teacher. Grateful to be teaching in Falls Church City. Grateful to have a rewarding career when so many don’t (my husband has been unemployed for almost a year now.) I’d focus on the students who need what he has to give…
No, I am not a teacher, but I AM a product of the Falls Church Public Schools. I remember to this day the dedication of my teachers, and the positive impression they left on me – one of whom was Mr. McDonald – it was all about teaching US. They stayed here and worked hard to make the school system better for those who would follow them. They were all Super Teachers, in my book…such is the cycle of gratitude.
As an individual presently without a job, much less a career, it is difficult for me to sympathize with Mr. Block. I offer this:
Problem: Surrounding jurisdictions’ school employees may receive pay increases, while Falls Church’s teachers may receive a pay cut.
Solution: Move.
L@@kingin22046 – this is exactly what we don’t want to have happen. If our best teachers move and the schools decline our property values will be right behind (and that will further drive down tax revenue and we’ll have to lay off more City staff).
I appreciate Grateful2BinFC’s sentiment and I’m guessing if you asked Mr. Block he would acknowledge that he’s grateful for what he has – and he obviously likes teaching in Falls Church. It seems to me his main question is: if other jurisdictions in the area (who are all facing budget projects) can keep teacher pay even (or raise it a little) why can’t Falls Church?
Now, it sounds like maybe other jurisdictions won’t be able to raise pay afterall and if that’s the case maybe Mr. Block would have different comments (it sounds to me like he’s not looking to be the highest paid teacher – just keep pace with other teachers in the area).
It’s certainly not an easy problem to solve. Mr. Peppe’s comments suggests that in Arlington and Fairfax they’re going to cut a bunch of teachers (i.e. lay them off) in order to keep pay levels flat for those that remain. I’m not sure how far we could get with that approach in such a small school system like ours – so it may be that we have to cut back pay a little bit for all instead of trimming staff.