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Mr. Foster maintained that Rappahannock needs a viable working budget that provides both accountability and a good income for the county’s teachers. “I wholeheartedly endorse good teacher salaries. I wholeheartedly endorse a system that can weed out those teachers with and without tenure who aren’t teaching.”
Peggy Smith noted that teachers often spend their own money for instructional supplies while community organizations, students and parents raise money for athletic supplies and equipment. If money is left in the current budget at the end of the fiscal year, “could it please be used for a john in the boys’ locker room?” she asked. Questioning both the funding level and allocation of funds, Mrs. Smith said: “We are a small community ... We should have a model school system.”
With an enrollment of 956 and 69 teachers, the county has a pupil-teacher ratio of 14:1, noted Supervisor Newbill Miller.
Close to that, agreed Mr. Estabrook, pointing out that fewer students in advanced and special education classes throw off the ratio.
Mr. Miller also recalled that Rappahannock students have shown significant improvement over the last five years on standardized achievement tests and College Board exams.
“And we were publicly cited because 98 percent of our high school students passed their competency tests more than Fairfax!” Mrs. LaCava added.
“I’m shocked at how the gravity of our situation has been glossed over,” countered Chris Bird. “One third of our teachers left last year . . . What we’re discussing is whether we’ll even have any teachers here to pay. Things are going to disintegrate until we can’t find teachers to fill positions . . . This year, we may lose a lot more teachers who are waiting to see what you do tonight,” Mr. Bird warned.
“The taxpayer in this county has done more and more every year but the rest of the country is outgaining us,” said Supervisor Nelson Lane. “We are a well administered school system. We have very capable administrators,” Mr. Lane said, repeating a request he made last year of those administrators: Find a way to do more with less. “The best thing we’ve got going for us is that we’re small and can exercise control over our destiny although I’m not sure how we’re going to do that,” the former School Board member said. He maintained that the recent pattern of continuous tax increases will ere
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