After going without a pay raise for three years, we applaud the proposed 2 percent pay raise contained in the budget request recently approved by the School Board (although we do note that the current county budget proposal contains no pay raises for anyone).  After all, teachers, and those workers at the lower end of the pay scale such as paraprofessionals (aides), bus drivers and custodians, like those of us in the private sector, face an ever-rising cost of living.  Like you, we too know that gassing up the family ride costs a lot more these days than a

year ago. By and large these folks are the hardest working and most productive employees in the school system.
Unfortunately, pay raises are also going to the least productive and worst performing group of school division employees: The administration.

We object to Brown and other administrators getting raises for two simple reasons:  First, they are already very well compensated.  Superintendent Candace Brown’s salary, exclusive of her other perks, is $128,292, while her assistant, Dick Roberts, makes a tidy $104,171. Brown’s perks include some $7,000 for a car allowance and a handsome annuity worth $10,000 — the kind of pension taxpayers are protesting nationwide. While a 2 percent raise may not sound like all that big a deal, the point is that they are already well paid.

 Which brings us to our second objection: Performance.  Based upon their performance, Brown and her top crew simply do not deserve any pay raise, no matter how small. Space limitations preclude a comprehensive laundry list of school system failings, but a short list will suffice.
Most glaringly, the school division has been cited by the Virginia Department of Education for non-compliance with federal regulations regarding the provision of special education services. Some of the deficiencies are systemic and the non-compliance has continued for several years. The struggles of one student, Bobby, were chronicled in The Journal’s pages beginning last fall. Bobby’s mother has prevailed in her complaints to VDOE regarding Bobby’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) and the school division’s handling of the meeting about his IEP.

The school administration has failed to comply with state and federal regulations for special education, and as a result Bobby is going to a private school outside the county at taxpayer expense. That’s great for Bobby, but it costs the taxpayers because the school administrators have failed to do their jobs and provide the educational services he needed.

However, the taxpayers do not get to make the decision about pay raises. You delegate that authority to your elected School Board representatives.  The Board of Supervisors can only set the amount of total funding and approve the school budget by category.  The supervisors cannot dictate how the funds are spent once the budget is approved, so they also have no say in the pay raise issue. Once approved, the School Board makes the decision about how those funds are spent.
And, unfortunately, the School Board members seem to accept whatever the school administration puts before them without questioning it.
School Board members have never discussed the violations found in the special education program, at least in public. Maybe they are unaware of the violations, although The Journal has reported on them. Dennis Paulsen has said he doesn’t read The Journal. Maybe he would be better informed if he did.

When Bobby’s mother made a complaint about her treatment by Pat Nealon, Supervisor of Special Services, at a meeting about Bobby’s IEP, the School Board handled it under a policy dealing with any student or school personnel harassing another student or school personnel, sexually, based on race, national origin, disability or religion.
That was not the subject of the complaint. They answered a question not asked, and an issue not raised. And apparently they never questioned how the complaint was presented to them. Then there was the situation a couple of years ago where the school division disciplined a student without following its own policies and procedures.  The student’s parents sued the school system and won.  It was an open and shut case, and guess who paid for the lawyer fees?  That’s right, you. We could provide more examples, but we don’t have that much room. It just goes on and on.

This year we suggest that the amount of money needed to fund a 2 percent pay raise for administrative staff — $87,080 — be instead allocated to everyone else.  Better still, get supervisors to cut that $87,080 from the School Board’s final budget figure so there is no money for administrative raises.

Candace Brown is already well compensated. She can afford to gas up her car with that $7,000 allowance. The bottom line is that the administrative staff simply don’t deserve a raise based on performance, not to mention leadership. Maybe, just this once, the School Board could refuse to drink their superintendent’s Kool-Aid and for once, just once, prove they are not asleep at the wheel and ask some pertinent questions as to why these raises are deserved.

Oh wait, this is the King George County School Board. Guess that won’t be happening any time soon.