001Hey. Heat. Heat. I'm Good afternoon. My name is Kathleen Brown and I call this meeting to order at 400 PM on this 27th day of 2026. We are going to begin with a short close session. Um, and we estimate that we're going to be out around 4:30 p.m. for our workshop portion of the agenda. Um, Madame Clerk, would you please announce the role? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the schoolboard chamber are Chair Brown, Mr. Bowensteel, Mr. Kalen, Mr. Co Pepper, Mr. Cummings, Miss Dwire, Miss Felton, Dr. Green, Miss Melnik, and Miss Rogers. Thank you. Um, and Vice Chair Williams is out for medical reasons. This time, Miss Melnik, would you please read the motion to go into closed? Sure. I moved that the school board recess into close session in accordance with the exceptions
002to open meetings law set forth in code of Virginia section 2.2-3711 part A paragraphs 17812 and 29 as amended to deliberate on the following matters. One discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees or employees of any public body. An evaluation of performance of departments or schools of public institution of higher education where such evaluation will necessarily involve discussion of the performance of specific individuals. Any teacher shall be permitted to be present during a closed meeting in which there is a discussion or consideration of a disciplinary matter that involves the teacher and some student and students involved in the matter is present provided that the teacher makes a written request to be present to the presiding officer of the appropriate
003board. Nothing in this subdivision, however, shall be construed to authorize to close meeting by a local governing body or an elected school board to discuss compensation on matters that affect the membership of such body or board collectively. Seven, consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing and open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body. For the purpose of this subdivision, probable litigation means litigation that has been specifically threatened or on which the public body or its legal council has a reasonable basis to believe will be commenced by or against a known party. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is
004in attendance or is consulted on a matter. Eight, consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consulted on a matter. 12. information relating to the negotiation of a and award of a specific contract, where competition or bargaining is involved, and where the release of such information would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body. Such information shall not be withheld after the public body has made a decision to award or not to award the contract. 29. Discussion of the award of a public contract involving the expenditure of public funds
005including interviews of biders or offerers and discussion of the terms or scope of such contract where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body namely to discuss a review of draft RFQ for CIP Princess High School project B superintendent's midyear goals and related matters C status of pending litigation or admin administrative cases and D consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation and pending litigation matters. Okay. Motion made by Miss Melnik, seconded by Dr. Green. Any discussion? And Mr. Ken, I saw yours lit up. You don't have any comments. Correct. Oh, okay. Just making sure. Operator. All right. Seeing no discussion. I call for the vote to go into close session. Madame clerk. Mine will not connect. It says I am not a valid somebody for
006discussion. Okay. Uh Miss Melik, how do you vote for going into class? So, Madam Chair, we have 10 eyes. The motion to pass to go into close session. Thank you. where whereas the school board of the city of Virginia Beach has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Whereas section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by this school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore, be it resolved that the school board of the city of Virginia Beach hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting
007to which this certification applies, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered. Is there a motion for the certification of close? Moved by Dr. Green, seconded by Miss Dwire. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to certify close session. And Miss Melik, how do you vote? Yes. And Mr. Cummings, how do you vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. We have 10 eyes. The motion did pass for certification of close session. Thank you. We are now on to our administrative, informal, and workshop session. And we're on to schoolboard administrative matters and reports. Um, there's a couple updates here. I have the meetings with the superintendent and the school visits. I'm going to start by passing those to my right.
008Um, and also just a reminder, statement of economic interest forms are due to the school board clerk by Monday, February 2nd by 5 p.m. Do any board members have anything to report? A raise of hands would work. Miss Rogers, my uh screen has not switched. That's okay. Uh I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the following recognitions and celebrations within our community. In the month of January, the community will recognize the following or did recognize. National Mentoring Month promotes youth membership, a mentorship by celebrating mentors, raising awareness of its importance, and encouraging more community members to become mentors by highlighting how these relationships boost young people's academic success, confidence, and leadership skills. Poverty in America Awareness Month aims to recognize the severe conditions of poverty, including hunger, malnutrition, and limited access to education that
009occur every day in the United States. This awareness aims to help improve living conditions of people in the community. On January 1st, the community celebrated New Year's Day, which is the commemoration of the beginning of the calendar year and represents a fresh start of a new year and a moment of remembrance of the passing year. On January 4th, the community honored World Braille Day, which commemorates the birth of Louisie Braille, the inventor of the tactile reading and writing system designed for the visually impaired. It raises awareness about the importance of braille for communication, education, and independence to ensure full access for the visually impaired. On January 19th, the community honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This federal holiday honors the life and legacy of Dr. King, a civil rights leader who advocated for the racial
010equality and civic engagement through nonviolent protest. Dr. King is well known for his I have a dream speech and leadership in the civil rights movement. On January 24th, the community commemorated the International Day of Education, which was established by the United Nations to highlight education's role in peace development and as a fundamental human right for all and focusing recent recently on youth development in co-creating future education systems. Its emphasis uh emphasizes inclusive quality learning for everyone, breaking poverty cycles, and fostering global citizenship. And finally, today on January 27th, the community recognizes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is an international memorial day to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the genocide of millions of Jewish people and countless of other minority groups. Thank you. Do any other board members have anything to report?
011Um, and I just I wanted to um add one thing. I am going to ask um Carolyn Williams, the chair of the policy committee, to ask the policy committee to take a look at our um device policy. We've had a lot of conversations over the last couple of years uh regarding that and um I just want them to have that conversation to see if they want to move anything forward to the board for consideration. Um, so I just wanted to make sure that the public and the board was aware that I was going to make that request. Thank you for that. Thank you. Okay, we are now going to move on to striving for a competitive future, prioritizing staff compensation while balancing budget priorities. And we welcome Dr. Darnita Tropman, chief human resources offer officer,
012Judith Wood, coordinator classification classification and compensation. And members from Seagull, Dr. Paul Singer, Paula Singer, I'm sorry, I can't read today. Vice President and Andrew Canowski, associate consultants. So, um, before I turn over Dr. Trotman, uh, just let me share some information. So when we've worked with seagull uh we've been talking to them since before the holidays and the task that we gave them was to bring a presentation here uh based upon the information we had at the time and what we thought was fundable so to speak. So you're going to see some scenarios in here for staff compensation that the landscape has changed over the last week in a very favorable manner. So what do I mean by that? Well, we have a Congress right now that is poised to pass a budget that
013will keep our federal funding that we've enjoyed over the last several years intact. So that's a good thing. Um the VRS made some decisions around employer contributions that have provided us a large sum of money um based upon some of our savings uh things that we've done and holding positions. There's money. So when you're looking at the presentation for SQL tonight, know that what these scenarios can give you is the difference between the increases. You'll be able to easily see if the increase from two to two and a half percent, two and a half to 3%, three to three and a half percent is $500,000, then you can assume that three and a half to 4% is $500,000. Now, I made that number up. It's bigger than that, but you'll be able to see that
014increase. So this is just a area to start, but I did want to say that when you see the presentation from from Crystal Pate afterwards and you see the large sum that we have available to this board, uh I don't want anybody to think of what were you trying to do then with the seagull presentation. So I wanted to set the context was their information they've been working off was two weeks old, but things changed last week. So I'll share it over to you, Dr. from Can I ask a quick question of what Dr. um Robertson just said? The money from VRS that we're saving, is that going to be ongoing or is that a one-time deal? So, it is built into our base budget. I mean, it they can increase the rates again. So,
015but right now it is built into the base budget for us to move forward. And I will say that even at the city level when they did retreat yesterday, they've released their savings as well. So, and so like we can count on that though in years forward is what my question is. Perfect. Thank you. Well, I think to be fair, uh it can change, right? Because we know they can. But it's a really good question because if it changes in two years or a year, we could be in a pickle. And and actually even before this presentation, I had some questions related to that. I'll I'll wait until after the presentation, but I I do have some comments on the VRS. So go ahead. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Brown, members of the school board, and Dr.
016Robertson. This afternoon's presentation will focus on staff compensation while recognizing the need for balancing priorities. School divisions nationwide continue to experience staffing challenges, particularly in high needs areas while balancing fiscal constraints in an increasingly competitive labor market. Our division is no exception and this environment requires ongoing attention to the tools and frameworks that guide compensation decisions. As formulating the 2026 2027 superintendent estimates of needs is underway, we are navigating both uncertain funding and a highly competitive labor market to work towards compass to 2030 goals. We must remain vigilant in strengthening our ability to attract and retain employees across all positions. This afternoon, Miss Judith Wood, coordinator of compensation and classification, in partnership with our compensation consultant, Seagull, will provide an overview of key compensation priorities, important reminders, and cost scenarios for the board's consideration. At
017this time, I turn the presentation over to Miss Wood. Okay, thank you Dr. Trotman. Good afternoon. We will start with an overview of the Compass to 2030 strategic framework which reinforces our commitment to cultivating a high quality sustainable workforce. We will then review the elements of an effective compensation strategy, including how a competitive pay structures, transparency, and fiscal responsibility work together to attract and retain talented employees. This will be followed by a review of the school board's compensation philosophy, which governs how compensation decisions are made. Lastly, we will transition to Seagull, who will update us on the current market position for teacher salaries and present cost scenarios align with the division's fiscal priorities for employees on both the unified and teacher pay scale. The compass to 2030 strategic framework provides the basis for our work
018and guides how we support our students and employees across Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Within this framework, goal three, value and invest in staff, focuses on enhancing and sustaining a positive work culture that attracts, supports, and retains a high quality workforce. While goal five, advance organizational excellence, emphasizes the effective and efficient use of division resources to meet the needs of both students and staff. As we continue our work to ensure every student in Virginia Beach City Public Schools succeeds, we recognize that achieving these goals depends on the people who make it possible. Our staff and leaders are the foundation of student success and investing in their growth, stability, and well-being is essential. Striving for a competitive future reflects the division's commitment to maintaining a transparent and fiscally responsible compensation strategy that supports our workforce and
019guides future efforts to improve the division's competitiveness. With this commitment in mind, it is important to understand what defines an effective compensation strategy for Virginia Beach City Public Schools and how its key components work together to support our workforce while remaining fiscally responsible. A competitive pay structure helps attract and retain staff, reduce vacancies, and ensure continuity and stability in the classroom. It also supports professional growth by providing compensation for advanced credentials. Transparency and accountability are critical to building trust through clear, fair, and predictable pay practices, including defined salary progression. Fiscal responsibility ensures compensation remains sustainable, datadriven, and aligned with long-term workforce needs and student centered priorities. This includes reviewing pay practices on a regular basis as economic conditions and funding levels change, allowing the division to remain financially stable while working toward improved competitiveness over
020time. The foundation for developing and maintaining a classification and compensation strategy is a well-defined compensation philosophy. In short, it establishes how employees are compensated, how pay decisions are made, how employees are placed on and progressed through the pay scales, the purpose of a purpose of allowances and supplemental duty pay, and how often the scales are reviewed, among other key elements. The document before you and included in your packet is the school board's current compensation philosophy. with the compensation philosophy establishing the principles that guide how we approach pay. The next slide illustrates how those principles translate into total compensation for an individual employee. Total compensation reflects the full value of employment including base salary, educational allowances and employer paid benefits. This slide is for de demonstration purposes only and focuses on components we can reasonably account
021for. Specifically, slot salary and employer paid benefits for a plan one employee. Please note that the amount used for the health insurance contribution re represents an average employer contribution. Employee contributions are based on the actual plan selected. In the first example, the slide shows a 10-month employee who did not elect health insurance. The employees total compensation is $55,687. Below that, you'll see the employer paid benefits, including VRS retirement, life insurance, the VRS health insurance credit, and the employer's share of FICA totaling an estimated $14,72. Because health insurance was not elected, the employer paid health insurance contribution is not displayed. When combined, the total compensation package for this employee is $69,759 with employer paid benefits being 25% above the employer's base employees base salary. The second example shows an employee with the same base salary of
022$55,687 but who elected health insurance. Under employer paid benefits, you'll see a health insurance contribution of $12,642 towards the cost of coverage for a total of $26,714 employer pay benefits. As a result, the estimated total above compensation, excuse me, as a result, the estimated total compensation package increases to approximately $82,41 with employer paid benefits being 48% above the employees base salary. The key takeaway is that while salary is an important component, total compensation reflects the full value of employment, including employer paid benefits and the health insurance contribution. In addition, compensation is experienced as a whole. Non-monetary values such as workplace culture, the work environment, and relationships with colleagues all play a meaningful role in how employees perceive the overall value of employment and are critical to recruitment, retention, and employee satisfaction. As we prepare for
023the 2026 2027 superintendent estimate of needs and ensuring an sustainable compensation structure, I'd like to introduce our compensation consultants from Seagull. Dr. Paula Single Singer, vice president, along with Andrew Kazinski, consultant. Their services have been instrumental in helping the division to align Virginia Beach City Public Schools pay scales with market standards while staying within our fiscal resources. They would provide insights on our instructional pay scale and offer scenarios based on our fiscal resources while supporting the division's ongoing efforts to recruit and retain all staff. At this time, I would turn over the presentation to Dr. Paula Singer of Seagull. Dr. Singer, can you unmute? Madame clerk, is is she online? She is online and it looks like she did unmute. Okay. Is there any portion of this presentation after that that we can continue with
024while we figure out how to get her unmuted? No, keep go. Yes, keep going. Okay. Thank you. You want me to go? Okay. Um, let me see. Let me go down to her next. So, let me go with their agenda. Um we're going to start they will start with a review of the J of the agenda for today's presentation. They will provide a recap of their partnership with the division since 2019 and also remind us of their project goals and share their findings scenarios for implementation and the cost imp imple implic implications of implementing each scenario. So there will be a lot to cover as they go through this and as Dr. Robertson already mentioned it will be modified. So if you have questions, please hold until the end of the presentation. Dr. Singer, can
025you try to speak? I can't. Hello. Can Can anyone hear me? Apologies. Yes. Thank you. Great. Hi everyone. Um my name is Andrew Kinsky. It sounds like um Paula is having a little bit of an issue um with her audio. Um but I am happy to um kind of continue the the conversation until she's able to join if that would be helpful. That would be great. Go ahead. Okay, great. Thank you very much. All right. Um, Mrs. Wood, if you would please, um, I know and I appreciate you um, going over the agenda quickly. Maybe we can move to the timeline. Next. Great. Thank you. Um, so following a small study of compensation of of clerical and facility staff in 2021, uh, we began our work in earnest with a two-phase compensation study. Uh the
026first involved working with the school board to update your compensation philosophy. Uh the second was a comprehensive assessment of how the division's pay plan compares to local school divisions. Um that has been a goal of all four projects uh to meet and hopefully align with or exceed the pay rates offered by our nearest peer competitor for teacher talent. Now, as you can see, since the spring of 2022, Virginia Beach City Public Schools has partnered with Seagull to complete the following initiative. Uh, we've worked with the school board to update and finalize the division's compensation philosophy. Uh, we've assessed the competitiveness of positions to strengthen the division's market standing while maintaining internal pay equity for employees. We have implemented a 1.5% step increment for all experience levels on the instructional teacher pay scale and continue to
027recommend increasing entry-level rates based on available funding. Uh other results of our collaboration led to consistent pay increments on the unified pay scale. Uh raising the minimum wage for our lowest paid employees and creating a new grade level for select professional level position. Now since beginning this work uh we've provided the division with market analyses and recommendations to support decision making for annual employee salary increases for teachers. Each year's increases um shown on this chart reflects adjustments recommended through this partnership and ultimately approved by the school board as part of the division's budget planning process. Uh with the exception of the 2324 school year, the percentages shown reflect a flat adjustment applied to the teacher pay scale. During 2324, Virginia Beach undertook a targeted effort to realign the teachers pay scale by adjusting the percentage
028increases between steps. The goal was to create a more consistent and predictable step progression across the scale by moving toward a uniform 1.5% increase between steps. Um, as a result, the 23 24 school year is reflected as an average 10.6% adjustment. Simply stated, um, over four years, approved teacher salary increases total 26.6% averaging approximately 6.65% per year. Uh Dr. Singer, just to check and see, I look I can see you. Are are you here? Can you still having audio? All right, fair enough. All right. Um well, I'll I'll continue then. Um on this slide, um similar to the teacher pay scale, um this slide shows the annual salary adjustments that have been applied to the unified pay scale over the past four years. uh the percentage shown represents a flat salary adjustment applied across the
029unified pay scale. Uh however in 2023 2024 uh is shown as an average because that year also included in both salary movement and a significant effort to improve the structure of the scale. Now during 23 24 uh the division made targeted market adjustments by moving several critical positions including bus assistance, cafeteria assistance, custodian one uh and the fleet shop helper from grades five to grade seven. Uh due to the corresponding domino effect of these adjustments, additional positions were also realigned to maintain consistency. Um so that included uh positions like the assistant cafeteria managers. Uh there's the baker/cooks, um the cafeteria managers and training custodians two and custodians three. Um we also created a professional level two grade for certain certified staff and reclassified 16 additional positions identified as below market. Um over the past four
030years, the unified pay scale increases total 23% that averages out to about 5.75% per year. Uh while progress has been made toward a more consistent 1.5% step progression like the teacher pay scale, um realigning steps one through 14 uh from 1 to 1.5% remains an outstanding issue and continues to be a key consideration as we evaluate further compensation options. The two primary goals of this uh meeting today are going to be um to develop the teacher pay scale costing scenarios um that will improve the teacher entry rate while ensuring increases reflect the division's commitment to employees while balancing fiscal responsibility and then also uh develop uh the unified paycale costing scenarios to provide increases that reflect the division's commitment um to its employees while again balancing that fiscal responsib ibility. Um, this study, as Judy
031mentioned, was requested in support of the division strategic plan uh for Compass 2030. And in essence, our goals are designed to reflect our commitment to uh employees while being a responsible steward of taxpayer money and improves the entry salary of teachers. All right. So, now we're going to get into some uh of the specifics with um each um each pay scale. So, um, so we're going to start with the teachers pay scale. Um, we're going to review the historical entry level rankings for teachers relative to other school districts. We're going to look at Virginia Beach's current salary positioning and five-year intervals relative to your peers and present scenarios we've modeled and the associated employee impacts of cost implications of those scenarios. All right. So, this slide shows historical market rankings of entry-level teacher pay across
032the Hampton Road school divisions with a specific focus on how Virginia Beach City Public Schools has been positioned over time. For two school years, beginning in 2021, you'll see that Virginia Beach was clearly positioned at the top of the market. However, by 2023, Virginia Beach's relative position had started to shift. The division moved fourth and then to seventh in 2024 2025 where it remains for 2025 2026. Uh importantly this change in ranking is not driven by stagnant salaries at Virginia Beach um as entry- level pay has continued to increase each year. Uh however peer divisions have made larger and more aggressive entry-level adjustments which has affected Virginia Beach's relative standing in the market. Uh what this tells us is that while Virginia Beach continues to invest in entry- level teacher pay, the pace of the
033increase has not kept up with the broader market, which has resulted in a decline in its relative position. Uh this trend is particularly relevant as we consider recruitment competitiveness, especially for entry uh career um entry- level teachers uh who are often comparing starting salaries across neighboring divisions. Uh this next slide shows the division's current position for teachers with a bachelor's degree at five-year increments compared to local school divisions across experience levels. Um at the entry level, Virginia Beach ranks seventh. Um overall, Virginia Beach generally ranks in the middle of the market across experience levels, placing between third and seventh depending on years of service. Um while salaries have increased uh we continue to trail Chesapeake by approximately 1 and a.5% at all steps uh highlighting an ongoing competitiveness gap uh despite recent adjustments. Um as
034we look towards uh 2026 2027 school year. Um the next couple of slides will outline cost scenarios for providing salary increases to employees by adjusting entry- level salaries. All right. Our first scenario here uh for the teachers pay scale adjustment is scenario A. Now this includes a 2% increase to the current structure. Um the table on this slide highlights the value of the increase to the structure at 5-year intervals. So moving from left to right um what you'll see are years of service. um the current step value associated with each year of service uh the proposed step value with the 2% increase to the structure in this case and the value of the increase to that step. So, in this scenario, the 2% increase would provide a $1,114 increase in entry- level salaries, um, a
035$1,200 increase at year five, and so on, ultimately with a $2,144 increase for employees with over 44 years of service. This supports a 3.5% increase for each eligible employee. um that would be the 1.5% step increase they would receive and then the 2% structure adjustment. Uh similar to the previous slide, uh scenario B shows the dollar difference per step with a 1.5% increase to the structure as opposed to a 2% increase. Uh the layout of the table is the same as scenario A. Uh and the increases for this scenario would result in an $835 increase for entry- level teachers up to a $1,68 increase uh with those with over 44 years of service. Overall, uh this is going to support a 3% increase for eligible employees. That is again that 1.5% step increase that they
036would receive. Um and then a 1.5% structure adjustment. All right, we're going to skip over the next couple of slides uh based off of Dr. Roberts and good news, right? That we seem to have more money at our disposal um for this conversation than than previously um discussed. So um so those past two slides what you'll see here will include a couple scenarios and you'll see the same on the unified scale as well that um again the numbers are the numbers and you'll feel free to look at them but for purposes of the discussion we'll just focus on scenarios A and B for now uh just kind of given the the the financial um uh realities of of uh of where we're at as of today. So what you're seeing here on this slide is
037pulling together both the scenarios uh listed in the previous two slides so they can be seen side by side um where you can see the value of the increase to the step. On the left hand side you have the current step rate uh with scenarios A and B laid out in the order of the percentage increases discussed previously. All right. Uh this next slide provides examples of the type of increase a teacher who's eligible for moving a step could expect to see based on the scenarios that we've presented. Um this slide illustrates the movement of teachers from the current pay scale to the proposed scenarios for each scale. Uh it includes each of the proposed scenarios plus a step for an additional year of service. Um the first example we have provided is the increase
038a new teacher could expect to see moving from their first year to one year of experience. Um the increase is highlighted in the blue box and these employees would move from a current salary of 55,687 uh to 57,653. Um that's an increase of $1,966. Um the increase to the pay scale of 2% in addition to the step increase of 1.5% provides an overall increase of 3.5% for eligible employees to move a step. Now you'll see a similar approach has been applied to scenario B. Um, an increase to the scale of 1.5% provides an increase of $1,683 or 3% of the elig eligible employees previous salary which is highlighted in the purple box. And ultimately what we have here um is a slide that provides the operating cost for uh both of these scenarios A and
039B again as well as as as C and D. But um we'll focus on A and B here. So um scenario A, which is the 2% increase to the structure, has an operating cost of $14,885,012. Uh it provides a 3.5% increase for all eligible employees. Scenario B is the 1.5% increase and has an operating cost of 12,741,68 and supports a 3% increase for eligible employees. Okay. The other area of focus um for today's presentation will be discussion of different scenarios for the unified scale. As a reminder, this scale includes the non-eing positions. Um, we're going to look at a couple of different scenarios for updates to the salary scale itself and the associated impacts on cost. Unified um the unified salary scale starts with grade U7 and it goes through grade U28. Now, for purposes
040of this overview, we're going to look at the impacts of these structure change options on grade U7. Um, this grade includes critical positions such as bus bus assistants, uh, custodian one staff, cafeteria assistants, just to give you a sense of the types of roles will be impacted by updates to this grade. So, from left to right, what you'll see are years of service, um, the current pay rate for each year, the current step increment, which is the percent increase in pay from one year to the next, uh, the newly proposed pay rate, and the proposed step increment. Um it's important to note here that the step increment for years 0 through 14 stays at 1% and years 15 through 47 stay at 1.5% um in comparison to the teacher scale uh which has the 1.5%
041increase between all steps. So this first scenario uh which referring to is scenario A uh shows grade U7 with a 2% increase to entry level pay. Now, this uh option supports a minimum of a 3% increase for all eligible employees. Um, this increase provides a 31 cent increase for entry- level employees and a 46 cent increase for employees at 30. I think you should be able to I'm sorry. Follow up with that. Um I I I I think you can hear me. I've just got to do something. Okay, keep going. Okay. Um so for scenario B, um scenario B is going to highlight a 1.5% increase to the structure. Um a half% less than scenario A. Um the headers of the table here are the same as scenario A. Um, and this option supports a
042minimum of a 2.5% increase for all eligible employees and provides a 24 cent increase for entry- level employees as highlighted in the purple box here, right? Uh, with a new pay rate being $16 an hour compared to the current $15.76 an hour. Um, and this, um, for year 30 employees, you'll see a 34 increase in this scenario. All right. Again, we'll move past scenarios C and D for now. Um, and slide um is going to lay out the cost for all of the scenarios. Again, with a a primary focus on scenarios A and B here. Um, you'll note that both of the options maintain a 1% increase for steps 0 through 14 and a 1.5% increase for steps 15 and above. Um, scenario A, uh, which is the 2% increase to the structure, has an
043operating cost of 8,56,134, um, and supports a minimum of a 3% increase to all eligible employees. Uh, scenario B, which is the option with a 1.5% increase to the structure, has an operating cost of 7,234,514 and supports a minimum of a 2.5% increase to all eligible employees. Um, excuse me, can you cut me off from the meeting because I'm also on my phone? If you can or not, Madam Clerk, can can we do that? Okay. Um, I'm on in two places. Oh, wait. I'll I'll close my black top. Okay. Is that better? Is that better? We're still getting some feedback. I I need to be Oh, that's better. I'm in two places. I'm on my laptop and also on my phone. You sound clear now. Yeah, that is better. Okay, good. I'm sorry. Andrew, please
044finish. Sure. Sure. I think we just have one more slide here. Um if you want to move to that. So what we have here is the um summary of scenarios for the unified and teacher pay scales here. So in summary um the scenarios provided for the teacher pay scale and the unified pay scale summary costs are outlined in each table uh for each option and correspond to the percentage increase to entry-le pay. Uh the overall average increase shown for each category represents the average percentage impact across all employees in that group. uh based on where individuals currently fall on the pay scale. Uh the focus of these options is to provide the greatest and most equitable increases possible um considering the current financial realities uh of the division. So I think at this point we'll
045open it up if there are any specific uh uh questions. We're happy to answer them um and and appreciate everyone's time. And I'm back. Angela, you did a great job, Miss Rogers. Hi. Thank you so much for the presentation. I did have a couple of questions and comments. Um, on slide six, I know we talked about you talked about total total compensation and what that means. Um, and the difference between uh someone who takes health insurance and not health insurance. Um, but some of the our health insurance and the retirement and our life insurance and all of those things, those are offered by every school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And so for me, I feel like these are things that we offer because everyone offers them and so it make doesn't make us
046any more or less competitive. Does that make sense? like in I understand including it to say this is what we give our employees but if we're talking about competitive in the market every school division is going to offer that. So if we're talking about why would someone stay with us versus um go somewhere else or want to be in Virginia Beach that kind of isn't a factor um because it's offered everywhere else. Does that make sense? Okay. And so I just wanted to make that comment. Um, the other thing I wanted to say is on slides 10 and 11, I'm a little um I don't really understand saying the total average because those percentage increases if you total them. And don't get me wrong, I'm a pre-K teacher. I married an accountant. But my very
047limited understanding is that average means you add up and divide by the number. And so wouldn't the average be 4.43%? for 3% three repeating and not total average. Well, it's should be cumulative. Yeah, that's okay. So, we're talking about the total percentage, not the total average. Okay. I was confused. I wanted to make sure I was thinking right. Thank you. Um and then the only thing I wanted to kind of point out um with the market assessment um it is concerning that we went in 2122 and 2223 from first in our pay to seventh now. Um and it seemed like it was a real quick um you know fall and so you know we went from first first then to fourth then to seventh and we remain at seventh and so that's obviously not going
048to make us very competitive. But I also want to point out on the next slide um I I'm very concerned that we don't fall into compression. If you look at Norolk, their um rank for zero years is they are second for their pay scale for brand new educators, but after 5 years, they drop straight down to the bottom. And that's not what we want to do. Um if you look at Chesapeake, they may be fifth when it comes to um new teacher pay, but then they rise to third and second as you go on. And I think that should be our goal is while we don't want to be seventh, we also want to make sure that we are taking care of our employees that stay with us. So that's really what I kind of
049wanted to just my comment is that that to me is important that while we don't want to be the last in new teacher pay, we also want to make sure that we're not compressing our teacher pay for our staff who have been here with us and continue to be here with us. and we want to make sure that we give them the compensation that they deserve. So, those um are pretty much um I think all my comments. Let me just run through because I want to make sure I didn't highlight anything else in this. No, that was it. So, I just want to say those things, Mr. Cummings. Uh thank you. And I I also had a similar question on slide 10 with the average or cumulative percentage increase being 26% from 2022 to 2026.
050And then and I just need some help understanding and this might just be something y'all help me out with. I look at slide 14 and I look at the salaries in in that same time frame and I don't see like a 26% increase of salary. Help me just speak to me about that a little bit. Help me understand, you know, I see 26% increase and then I look at slide 14 where the same time period I don't see that amount of increase reflected. Just help me understand that a little bit. And I could be not mathing this morning, this evening correctly, but yeah, but for the average for the historical, that's over the entire scale, whereas the other one is focused on different parts of the scale. So for fiveyear increments, you're talking about slide
05114. Mhm. So with this one, as you can see, it might not have been 40 a modest increase to the entry level, but this one right here really focuses on the average increases that employees receive overall. That's what this one does. It's not focusing just on the entry rate increases. Okay? So, as you can see, for 2324 is 10.6% 6% because that was the year we really went back and we really um divided the scale up to make sure it was 1.5% between increments. It was uh heavy lift at that time. That's why it chose 10.6. I think what might be helpful would be just for further understanding that those two different buckets is maybe just to draw a couple comparison salaries for us from you know the 2022 to 2026 period like someone who's
052the sub five years someone in the 5 to 10 someone in the 10 to 15 brackets and just so that we can see those you know how those compare over time that'd be helpful to me. Um, but I do appreciate the importance of this presentation and I am totally empathetic to technology issues as well with trying to connect to meetings at important times. So, you know, I I I hear that I understand that concern and happened to me too as a fully tech fluent individual helping happened to me the other day. So, I I I definitely understand that. My final thoughts is just I'm sitting here thinking about this in you know retrospective the importance of competitive pay. Uh I think it does a couple things because I see you know the great work that
053our our staff do. I see the great work their investment um from our teachers to our administrators. I think that was evident you know this past weekend seeing you know Dr. Robertson's majority of his leadership team present at the African-American Male Summit, seeing the Green Run teachers there, seeing all these folks in commitment to events outside what majority of us would define as working hours. Um, and really devoting, you know, a lot of time to our students, to our communities, to our schools. And I think that's one of the reasons that we have such a great and unique school system because of this investment from folks. And I know for myself that compensation has been something that is extremely important to our our staff and is something I've heard from our community. And so I
054will be definitely looking at these options to ensure that we remain competitive um for our educators, for our staff because I see them showing up, you know, outside of the scope many many many many times. And so I think that's definitely a way that we could send value that they matter. Um, so those are just some of my quick initial thoughts as just sitting through this presentation and echoing the similar sentiment that you know I heard from Seagull. Mr. Kalen, then Miss Melnik, thank you for the presentation. Uh, I have some not so much questions as much as it is observations in reference to information found on slide six. If I'm reading that correctly, it indicates that from the employer, there is a contribution to the employees retirement plan within the Virginia retirement system of
05515.23%. Yes. And is it safe to assume that that's competitive with other districts within the region? Can't really answer what other school divisions do. So typically for the teacher scales and the professional scale which includes our teachers for the school districts it's the same and then every bianium VRS board reviews those rates with actuarial studies and and based on the investments in the fund and the performance of the fund and whether they're doing well or not and that gives them the ability to lower those rates which is what we're seeing now for the next bianium. For the nonprofessional folks, everybody, every district, my understanding, gets a separate letter because everyone's different. Those rates are much lower, but they are specific to school divisions. Well, I have to say having a background in the world of
056401k plans in the marketplace of corporations, what you typically find is the fact that a an employer on average would encourage an employee to contribute to their 401k plan. And if they did, they would make a company match. But oftentimes the match was 50 cents on the dollar up to 6% or a maximum of 3% from the employer. 15.23% from the employer to the employee is just enormous and noteworthy and complimentary to the benefits package that exists. That's just an significant contribution that's being made. And I compliment the HR department and the school system for that contribution because it's very large. Rates. Yes. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. Miss Melnik. So, and I just want to clarify in order to so the cost implications for the scenarios for both, right? So, if
057we chose scenario A at an operating cost of $14.8 million for the teacher scale and $8.5 million for the unified pay scale. Then we're looking at an ongoing cost of 23,391,166. Do we have that in our budget this year? because it's ongoing. We do. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. And that'll put us number one because here's the other thing and I and I and and I have to talk about this because we're rich in Virginia Beach in so many ways. And I'm not saying I don't want to do compensation, right? Okay. I realize teachers don't make enough. I still talk about this in in my years. when I started at 24,030 in 1990 and ended before I left for a period of time 11 years later making $33,000. That was all I did
058in 11 years. Okay. However, the difference, and I hate to I I really don't want to bring this up, but we're all in the same boat. So the difference with Chesapeake for instance, who's in spot of five, the difference is $877 a year. I say we're rich in resources. And I worry about depleting our resources and not giving our teachers the things that they need in addition to the salary. I worry about that piece, too. And I hate that it's an eitheror, right? Um, I'm I'm excusing Hampton and Newport News because we never really include them. The significant jumps are in Norfick, Portsouth, and SuffK, and I have to wonder what I would pay in gas and tolls to get to Portsouth. Um, so just logic. I I do though want to fairly compensate what
059I deem, you know, the greatest teachers. Um, but I I do also want to be cognizant of the ongoing money because we have more employees than any any other division, which is why this is so significant. Um, okay. I just wanted to make sure we were looking at 23 million. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, we're going to do um Dr. Green, then Miss Dwire, and I am going to ask since it's 5:28, we are going to have to go back to workshop for budget item three. So, um, if you can limit the questions to those that, um, if you're able, Seagull can answer at this time since they're are on the phone or, um, and then that way we can return to those questions that staff would be able to answer um, at the end
060of the meeting. Dr. Green. Okay. And mine may not be one Seagull uh, can answer because it's a followup to Mr. um Ken's question uh about the VRS and it's more of a com um a comment um I think as we go through the budget process for my colleagues and and this is information um between Miss Paid and Dr. Tropman that your offices may be able to get back with us. I think everyone needs to be aware that there are several retirement plans uh option one, option two, option three. How many options do we have now, Crystal? Uh, and and I say that to say, is it four? I saw your hand go up. Three. Okay. I say that because the cost to the division would vary based on what option the employee is in.
061I'm a dinosaur, so I benefited from option one, which I know they are phasing out. So ladies, it may be helpful for us to have in the future a breakdown of what retirement plans are costing uh employees based on which option they're in because there is a difference that there is a big difference. So thank you. Miss Dwire. Yeah. I just well thank you ladies for your presentation. Um I see a little hope for our teachers uh pay um which I I'm I'm going to be honest I was concerned about and I just hope that that um continues to uh progress in the right direction. A bigger concern right now though is our support staff. Um, I don't see a competitive graph for them and I don't know how you can live on that on
062I mean even if it's a 40hour pay week it's very low while you're in the addendum you'll see some of those um critical u positions that we did provide information on how we compare with our local school divisions. Okay. I will definitely check it out. Um yeah, I I don't know. I mean, it just it's pretty pretty loud. Sorry. That's how I feel. Miss Rogers, is your question for Seagull or can really quick. Yeah. So, I know we talked about this during the um workshop about the possibility of switching our scales to like classified certified type things which would kind of answer Mr. Dwire's question. Is that something we are still consider like is that something that is still being considered or these were sticking with these at that time there wasn't enough board will
063to move forward with that direction that was and then I guess my only other comment is I know that we've talked about our pay being 85% of our average of our budget um but across the state this is within average it's usually 80 to 90% % I did some research beforehand and that's how much staffing costs in school divisions. We are right in the middle. So I do, like I said, want to make sure that we're taking care of our staff. Thank you. And um before we go, I don't have any specific comments for Seagull, but um just in case people are tuned in now and aren't tuned in later, I think this is a really important topic. I think that teacher compensation, staff compensation, and of course, all of those supporting positions are are
064very important and striking that balance in a world where we have finite resources to accomplish everything that we want to accomplish and making sure that student achievement and our um staff and employees are taken care of and compensated um is is very important. Um, I do have a lot of questions related to VRS, but I'm going to save those for the budget thing. And um, I am pleased with the work that we've done with the uh, the compression that has been huge. And so, you know, I want to make sure that we're continuing forward and trying to make sure we do what we can do to be competitive. But, um, unfortunately, we will have finite resources no matter what. Um, and with that, we are going to res recess until 6 PM for our formal
065meeting.