Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
What do you think taxpayers will get for the increase in School Board salary from $20,000 to $32,000? Will they actually return messages? Will they make sure problems get fixed? Will they hold staff accountable?
The County has announced their new initiative, anyone who feels they are underpaid can vote to give themselves a raise. You cant make this shit up. Another step towards losing that triple A bond rating.
There are some here who believe that elected officials, perhaps even all public service employees, should feel grateful to receive whatever scraps they get for their services. When you figure out how much time they spend working, including all of the time they spend at different school and community functions, add in the time they spend campaigning, and deduct from their pay their out of pocket costs, I suspect we are not really paying school board members that much per hour. Even if you added up all of the costs of this pay raise it probably wouldn't cover the cost of more than 3-4 teachers, and what the School Board is doing isn't much different than what routinely happens with executive compensation at many large companies in this country.
That said it is a poor PR move to increase school board compensation by over 50% at a time when many school employees have been getting either no pay raises or only minimal pay raises, when classroom sizes are increasing, and when many non-school county programs are getting cut in order to provide funds to increase the amount spent on schools.
Bill.N. Wrote:
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> There are some here who believe that elected
> officials, perhaps even all public service
> employees, should feel grateful to receive
> whatever scraps they get for their services. When
> you figure out how much time they spend working,
> including all of the time they spend at different
> school and community functions, add in the time
> they spend campaigning, and deduct from their pay
> their out of pocket costs, I suspect we are not
> really paying school board members that much per
> hour. Even if you added up all of the costs of
> this pay raise it probably wouldn't cover the cost
> of more than 3-4 teachers, and what the School
> Board is doing isn't much different than what
> routinely happens with executive compensation at
> many large companies in this country.
>
> That said it is a poor PR move to increase school
> board compensation by over 50% at a time when many
> school employees have been getting either no pay
> raises or only minimal pay raises, when classroom
> sizes are increasing, and when many non-school
> county programs are getting cut in order to
> provide funds to increase the amount spent on
> schools.
Great job sitting on the fence Bill, quite a significant contribution of info.
My school board person never got back to me. Neither did anybody else from the school system. And they think they deserve another $12,000 a year for this? They think they deserve $150,000+ a year? I am sure they put in some hours but how difficult is a phone call?
People! How many times does it have to be said?? You are the ones to do something about this. Stop re-electing these fools over and over again!!! You have the power; use it! Again, stop electing them!!!!!
Really? Wrote:
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> People! How many times does it have to be said??
> You are the ones to do something about this. Stop
> re-electing these fools over and over again!!!
> You have the power; use it! Again, stop electing
> them!!!!!
That is easier said than done. They put their name out there, nobody else wants to do it, they run against minimal opposition, and they are in. Even if you personally want the job, it is very hard to get enough votes to defeat another opponent.
the irony of it all Wrote:
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> The irony of it is they are unresponsive, and then
> Ryan McElveen wonders why people don't respect
> them.
They are more than unresponsive. I think they are six feet under.
Bill.N. Wrote:
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> Bill N. is an idiot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Fucking communist.
>
> Using your definition of communist, so is about
> 70% of the country.
Wrong!!! Just you, Obama suckers and MSNBC.
Long live the government! FUCK THE PEOPLE! It's the liberal way!
You identify a problem.
You try to work it out at the school level.
When that flops, you go to your Super, who punts it right back to your school.
After that doesn't work, you contact your School Board member.
They in turn contact the Super, who then contacts the school, and you are right back where you started from.
wrong... Wrote:
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> Wrong!!! Just you, Obama suckers and MSNBC.
>
> Long live the government! FUCK THE PEOPLE! It's
> the liberal way!
I should have remembered that I can't mud wrestle a troll without getting dirty.
You identify a problem.
You try to work it out at the school level.
When that flops, you go to your Super, who punts it right back to your school.
After that doesn't work, you contact your School Board member.
They in turn contact the Super, who then contacts the school, and you are right back where you started from.
You identify a problem.
You try to work it out at the school level.
When that flops, you go to your Super, who punts it right back to your school.
After that doesn't work, you contact your School Board member.
They in turn contact the Super, who then contacts the school, and you are right back where you started from.
Every time I have contacted a school board member I've received a prompt response. In fact, the school board member in my district shares a home phone number.
School Board members work close to full time and it distracts from the ability to hold another job. Even with this raise they are vastly underpaid.
If the Board of Supervisors, who oversee slightly less money than the School Board can be paid close to 6 figures, why can't the School Board get paid $30K?
To all the complainers on this site, let's see you do a better job.
My experience has been quite different-with my regional board member and the at large members. I plan to vote against all of them, as I see them as useless.
>Every time I have contacted a school board member I've received a prompt response. In fact, the school board member in my district shares a home phone number.<
Who is your School Board member? Name them. I don't believe you.
I think they work some long hours. I think maybe they deserve a raise. I don't expect them to do this for free. But, if you are not going to get back to your constituents, not return phone calls or emails, and not show that you have followed through on problems, you don't deserve the job. Or a raise. That is just rude. And I can tell you that is about all that I have experienced. If I pushed for a response, a response that I had every right to receive, I was labeled a pest.
My Supervisor has always gotten back to me.
It saves time in the long run.
If you don't get back to people some will just keep at it.
I guess I'm a pest. Certain questions they don't want to answer. School board seems to kick the question to a school administrator, who does as they please, which includes nothing.
I guess they hope we all have amnesia on election day.
Linda Smyth has always gotten back to me. She was the one who went digging through the library trash dumpsters pulling out library books that people were throwing out when we never seem to have enough money in this county.
Yes, I remember, Linda Smyth found the books they were tossing. There was a bunch of ranging and raving. What changes were made? Why is library funding being cut so much?
I would have liked to have seen a couple of county employees fired over this.
She also voted against the raise, but Moon and Velkoff had other ideas. They need to go.
true that - BUT Wrote:
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> Yhk90$,|\]432(! Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > lp Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Reed doesn't return phone calls or messages.
> >
> >
> > Well, she didn't vote for the raise.
>
> She has moaned and groaned about wanting taxing
> authority. She needs to respond if she wants to be
> re-elected. Sorry.
You have got to be kidding me. If they ever got taxing authority, it would be all over with. They would walk straight into our bank accounts and take it all, because it is never enough.
explain how the school system is asking for $1,000,000,000 (a billion) more than last year
explain how FCPS is the costliest part of Fx co va's $2 to $4 billion dollar debt (which by VA law must be repaid - as VA law does not allow counties do acrue debt)
Please help us all Wrote:
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> true that - BUT Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yhk90$,|\]432(! Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > lp Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > > > Reed doesn't return phone calls or
> messages.
> > >
> > >
> > > Well, she didn't vote for the raise.
> >
> > She has moaned and groaned about wanting taxing
> > authority. She needs to respond if she wants to
> be
> > re-elected. Sorry.
>
> You have got to be kidding me. If they ever got
> taxing authority, it would be all over with. They
> would walk straight into our bank accounts and
> take it all, because it is never enough.
Reed and Ted Velkoff have pushed very hard for taxation authority. Money to waste on turf fields, consultants, fundraisers, new age gurus, conferences and band trips.
>Reed and Ted Velkoff have pushed very hard for taxation authority. Money to waste on turf fields, consultants, fundraisers, new age gurus, conferences and band trips.<
Optional Band trips are financed by student fees.
As for the rest, the jury is still out. I have yet to see a cost analysis on the turf as vs grass. It isn't like grass is free to maintain. They do seem to have a million ways to spend a million. And there is certainly an "expert" for everything that would love a big fat check from FCPS.
If you let the School Board tax us, it is all over with.
The Turf Task Force said turf fields would benefit all residents. Well this resident doesn't benefit from them.
In fact, if you run the numbers, the turf fields only benefit a minority of students (not all of them play turf field sports) as well as a minority of residents (not all of us are inn athletic clubs).
In plain English, waste of money. Then we have to look at the risk of cancer from the rubber pellets.
In plain English, a bad idea by a County government that has become too big for its own good.
The School Board’s salary raises come after the supervisors voted 6-to-4 for their own salary increases, to $95,000 a year.
^^^^^
another lie. supervisors specifically say publicly on the web that $95k/yr salary is THEIR BASE PAY
and that other pay and benefits won't be disclosed to public even if they ask
they are flipping their middle finger at the federal rules and public interested in what they are making using taxes - a figure wich they themselves decided FOR THEMSELVES
Student Activities and Athletic Programs
Hearings Office
Regions
Chief Academic Officer
Department of Instructional Services
Department of Special Services
Testing / Assessment
Chief Operating Officer
Department of Human Resources
Department of Facilities and Transportation Services
Department of Financial Services
Department of Information Technology
Chief of Staff
Communication and Community Relations
Program Evaluation
Government Relations
TJHSST Admissions
Matches adult volunteer tutors with adult learners who need to improve their reading, writing or math skills to obtain a high school diploma or GED, get a better job, or pursue postsecondary education or training. More
Kathy Smith to Challenge Brian Shoeneman for Sully District Supervisor
"board member" (noting their duty overlap and no real definition of job)
Sully - Kathy Smith
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so rip the taxpayer then use the money to get higher up in the pyramid
not a dedicated school master. a proffesional pyramid game player who has no plans to stay with the schools.
SURELY - an elementary school teacher should get enough money from government to become a county Lord and get a mc'mansion - soley on government pay, mrs smith