Citizens Share Ideas for WJC School Pay Study

By Amber Lester Thursday, July 15, 2010

Last summer, the Williamsburg-James City County School Board discussed conducting a compensation study to examine its pay scale for teachers. One year later, the board will decide what that study should look like at its July 20 meeting.

In advance of the discussion, a citizen group called the James City County Citizens Budget Advisory Committee has released suggested criteria for the school board to use when reviewing proposals. They say the study is more necessary than ever as the school division faces even deeper budget cuts in the coming years.

The school division faces budget shortfalls in the next three years, said David Jarman, spokesman for the group. In an e-mail, he wrote the gap could go from an estimated $3.2 million in 2012 to a shortfall of $5.2 million in 2015. “This shortfall is caused by normal growth in school expenses on a ‘business as usual basis’ after 2012 and continued constrained funding from the state and localities,” he said.

In addition to decreases in state and local funding, the school division’s expenses will rise starting in 2012, with wage increases of 2.5 percent per year and benefits increases of 10 percent per year, he said. This year, the General Assembly voted to let school divisions skip payments into the Virginia Retirement System, but divisions will have to pick up those contributions again in a year. In its report, the group argues the spending is bound to outpace local revenue increases.

Wages and benefits account for most of the school system’s costs, Jarman said; total compensation makes up 87 percent of the division’s operating costs and 75 percent of total school spending in fiscal year 2010. As it stands, the average salaries in WJCC schools are some of the highest in the region. The average salary in WJCC was $52,964 in 2009; comparatively, York County’s average salary was $50,795. Chesapeake pays the most, with an average salary of $54,914, while Norfolk’s average is the lowest, at $39,727.

“Given this financial picture, it is appropriate to recognize these constraints going into the study,” Jarman wrote. “Assuming completion of the Compensation Study prior to the annual budget submission in February 2011, the study results should identify the areas where budget cuts may be made without adversely affecting school performance.”

The division’s request for proposals suggests the study should examine basic compensation, along with additional forms of compensation, including longevity pay, stipends, raises for advanced degrees and board certification, and benefits. The study should also quantify and compare the workloads and working conditions for WJCC teachers with teachers in benchmark divisions. In addition, the study should review the current compensation for jobs in the division, the group said.

The Budget Advisory Committee believes the compensation study should examine salary scales, benefits options, recruiting and retention and performance-based pay. The committee believes the division must maintain salary levels competitive with the rest of Hampton Roads, including starting salaries and step increases. The group also believes the division should find out how to phase out longevity pay, something the board members expressed interest in doing once they’ve seen the results of the study. Longevity pay, which rewards teachers for staying in the division, is costing $1.9 million to $2.2 million per year, Jarman said.

The ideal study, according to the group, would also explore ways employees could contribute more to the retirement system. If new employees paid a 5 percent contribution to the retirement system, an annual savings of $1.5 million per year could be realized by 2015, Jarman said. Health care benefits should also be studied, the report said, to find a way to save more money without reducing the quality of care.

The group recommends the division develop a strategy to recruit and retain good instructors, either through sign-on bonuses for the “best of the best” teachers or for teachers accepting “hard to fill” positions. They would like to see the study consider introducing retention bonuses for key positions in return for teacher commitments.

Finally, the group suggests the study examine a performance-based pay scale. President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative has pushed for divisions to incorporate performance-based pay, and the study could examine how it has succeeded or failed in other areas of the country.

“We believe this study is one of the more important strategic initiatives the school system is taking this year,” Jarman said in his report. “We offer our comments and recommendations with the intent of making it more effective.”

The board will discuss the compensation study at its next meeting at 7 p.m. July 20 in Building F of the James City County Complex on Mounts Bay Road.