School Budget with Step Increase Passes
The Board of County Supervisors adopted their advertised real estate tax rate and fully funded the school budget at their April 21st meeting. This action means that the School Board’s budget proposal suffered no cuts and included a step increase for teachers and staff as well as class size reductions in 9th grade math. The county board also adopted a special class size reduction grant that offers to match up to a million dollars if the School Board will fund additional class size reductions. The School Board will take up this proposal in May.
“As recently as two weeks ago it appeared we were in danger of losing this fight” said PWFT President Bill Hosp. “This success proves the saying that tells us it’s never over until it’s officially over.”
Northern Virginia Labor Federation Supports Justin Wilk for School Board
Justin Wilk has received the endorsement and a campaign contribution from the Northern Virginia Labor Federation. Wilk is running in this year’s county election to represent the Potomac District of Prince William County and had already received an endorsement from PWFT. Local president Bill Hosp noted that Justin is the only school board candidate who has taught in county schools in the 21st century,” which means he understands our concerns about class sizes, competitive pay and school safety.”
Member of the Month
Susan Oliver is our Member of the Month. She helped us begin our campaign to save full day kindergarten from budgetary cuts and responded to our background request with a brief autobiography.
“Since I am a Pennsylvanian…I attended Penn State University for two years, and then transferred to Edinboro where I received my degree in Early Childhood/Elementary Education. When we moved to VA, I was hired at Sinclair Elementary by Dr. Banks to teach kindergarten which had always been my dream job. At that time the students were (half day) in a morning class or an afternoon class. I only taught in the morning, and also taught homebound students in the afternoon. I have taught kindergarten in three different elementary schools: Sinclair, Westgate, and Cedar Point. I have been teaching kindergarten for 19 years, 8 of them at Cedar Point. I have taught full day kindergarten for 12 years. I was one of the pilot classrooms at Sinclair Elementary.
I am the ELL sheltered instructor for kindergarten which I love. I have been working with the ESOL students since my years at Sinclair. I enjoy teaching them because I see such tremendous growth from the beginning till the end of the year. Each school has helped me grow as an educator and I have enjoyed every day. Teaching kindergarten at Cedar Point is awesome because of the school community which is made up of the greatest parents, teachers, and administration.”