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Budget building for 1989-90 began in earnest Tuesday night, as Superintendent David Gangel and the School Board heard from the Rappahannock County Education Association. This was no angry confrontation over school funding, however; the requests came with compliments as RCEA representatives repeatedly thanked the board members for their support of the recently completed high school expansion and their attendance at so many school functions. “But once you open the door to people’s ideas, you’re stuck with the things they think of,” added high school math teacher and RCEA president Helen LaCava.
Speaking for the teachers’ group, Brion Patterson asked that the teachers pay scale be upgraded enough to improve Rappahannock’s ranking among Virginia’s 134 school division. (In 1987-88, Rappahannock’s teachers were 128th in the state in starting salary, 132nd in actual average salary, and 111th on top salary with a bachelor’s degree. For the same year, Rappahannock was rated 10th in ability to pay for education, based on the composite index figure which takes into account land values as determined by sales, income of county residents, and sales tax revenue generated in the county.)
When school divisions with higher salaries give 10 percent raises and Rappahannock does the same, teachers here drop down in the relative rankings, Mr. Patterson pointed out.
The education association also seeks an increase in supplemental pay for a master’s degree. “This would be the first such increase in six years," Mr. Patterson said, adding that with the decline in purchasing power due to inflation, a master’s degree here is actually rewarded less today by 30 percent than it was in 1983-84.
The RCEA also proposed raising the tuition assistance provided teachers and making this available to teachers who are seeking master’s degrees as well as those working to meet minimum endorsement and certification renewal requirements.
The ultimate goal with all three compensation-related proposals is to make it possible for Rappahannock County High School to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, according to Mr. Patterson. He noted that 248 of Virginia’s 287 high schools — including Culpeper, Warren, Fauquier, Orange, Central, Strasburg, and Stonewall — already have this accreditation.
SACS accreditation would help Rappahannock students who are seeking admission to college, he told the School Board. “We’re close to meeting accreditation standards in many areas, but we are hurting in some,” he said, giving as an example the SACS requirement that 25 percent of the teaching faculty have master’s degrees and every teacher be endorsed in his or her major teaching area.
He urged the School Board to make the decision to work towards SACS accreditation, saying application must be made during the period following next year’s evaluation by the state’s Visiting Committee. “If we wait 10 years for the next Visit
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