Teachers and other employees of Isle of Wight County Schools turned out at an April 24 public hearing to oppose County Administrator Randy Keaton’s proposed $113 million fiscal year 2025-26 budget, which would give IWCS less than half of the $6.6 million increase in local funding the School Board requested.

Keaton has proposed a $3.1 million, or 9.3%, increase in the county’s contribution to IWCS, matching the amount IWCS Superintendent Theo Cramer identified as mandatory expenses at a joint March 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors and School Board. The total includes funding for a state-required 3% pay raise for school employees and a $1.6 million increase in health care costs, but wouldn’t fund any of the 14 new full-time IWCS positions Cramer requested, nor the 1% to 2% annual increases teachers would ordinarily be due on top of the state-mandated raise under the division’s 35-step pay scale. 

Non-school county employees would also see a 3% raise under Keaton’s budget proposal.

Two-thirds of the 15 who spoke, most of whom identified themselves as IWCS employees or parents, urged the supervisors to find funding to restore the step increases.

Elizabeth Everett, a reading intervention teacher at Windsor Elementary, described her “mounting frustration as an employee of this county due to the lack of financial stability it can offer,” and noted IWCS is already behind neighboring school divisions in what it pays experienced educators.

According to the pay scale in place as of July 1 of last year, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree who’s completed his or her 15th year would earn $60,688. In Suffolk, a 15-year teacher would start at $65,618 and in Newport News, the same teacher would earn between $68,177 to $86,997 depending on whether he or she worked a 10-, 11- or 12-month contract.

“An extra 20 minutes of driving for 14% more and they would welcome us with open arms because like everyone else in this country they too are going through a teacher shortage and if anyone is wondering why teacher shortages are happening right now, this is it,” Everett said.

Matthew Summit, assistant principal at Hardy Elementary, said step freezes also affect the pensions teachers receive at retirement, which are based partially on their five highest-earning years.

“Additionally, I heard recommendations of increasing real estate tax and increasing our sewer and water rates. Combine this with only the 3% mandated pay increase and some teachers who live and work in our county may very well experience a pay cut. This is not just unfortunate, this is unacceptable,” Summit said.

“This is how you break teachers,” said Hardy teacher Brittany Winslow.

The School Board had listed restoring the step increases, which were frozen last year, as its top funding priority for 2025-26 when it adopted its separate $103 million budget, but that budget is contingent on county funding. The county’s proposed $36.3 million contribution to IWCS would amount to 32% of the county’s total budget, though Cramer had asked that the county up its share to 35%.

Other speakers, among them Volpe Boykin of Walters and Shelly Perry of Smithfield, urged the board to also consider the impact the budget, which includes a real estate tax increase, would have on senior citizens living on fixed incomes.

“This board I think I’m speaking for everybody respects you all and we appreciate what you do. I have kids – not kids now, grandkids – almost in every school in Isle of Wight County,” said Supervisor Rudolph Jefferson, who along with Supervisor Joel Acree, took the view that because the county starting last year now contributes a “lump sum” to its school system rather than the categorical funding in place prior to 2024, it’s the School Board’s responsibility – and not the supervisors’ – to ensure that money is prioritized for teacher pay.

County officials have estimated the cost of restoring the step increases at $521,000.

The School board is “elected just like we are, and this is their business,” Supervisor Renee Rountree said. “I do not want to go back to categorical funding.”

Supervisor Thomas Distefano called for making “smart cuts” to both the county’s and the school system’s budget to find the $521,000 needed. Rountree called for additional cuts in county spending, stating there was still “meat on that bone,” and also called for revising upward the county’s expected 2025-26 revenue.

“I do believe we can get there through raising a little bit of the conservatism when it comes to revenue projections,” Rountree said.

“We’re not trying to penalize teachers,” board Chairman Don Rosie said, but added that it may mean reducing funding for other School Board priorities.

Keaton said step increases require an ever-increasing amount of money to be available annually and are difficult to sustain as costs rise.

 

Budget changes

The supervisors will hold a second public hearing on May 15 on Keaton’s proposed tax rates and fees, and are tentatively scheduled to vote the same day on the proposed operating budget and capital improvement plan for one-time expenses.

The supervisors voted to advertise a 5-cent, or 6.8%, real estate tax rate increase but discussed the possibility of adopting a 4-cent increase instead. Per state law, the supervisors have the option of going lower, but not higher, than the rate advertised ahead of the tax rate hearing.

Under the 5-cent proposal, the new rate would be 78 cents per $100 in assessed value, which is tied with York County as the fourth lowest in Hampton Roads. Only Surry and Southampton counties, both of which presently charge 71 cents per $100, and the city of Williamsburg, which charges 62 cents per $100, are lower.

Windsor residents would pay a combined 89-cent rate based on the county increase and the town’s current 15-cent rate. Smithfield taxpayers would pay a 92-cent combined rate based on the county increase and the town’s 16-cent rate.

The 78-cent rate is 8.2% lower than the 85-cent rate Isle of Wight charged in 2022 before supervisors lowered it to 71 cents in 2023 to partially offset the reassessment that year that saw single-family home valuations rise 34% on average. The rate was raised to the current 73 cents in 2024.

The supervisors previously voted in March to readopt a $4.50 per $100 car tax rate ahead of the mailing of bills this month that are due June 5.

The latest draft of the budget also now calls for a water rate of $15.15 per 1,000 gallons, up $2 or 15% from the current $13.15 rate. Keaton had previously proposed a 66-cent increase to keep pace with the cost of buying water from the Western Tidewater Water Authority, an entity formed from Isle of Wight and the city of Suffolk.

It would be the third-highest water rate in South Hampton Roads behind Suffolk, which currently charges $14.83 per 1,000 gallons and has proposed a $15.24 rate effective July 1, and Southampton County, which currently charges $14 per 1,000 gallons and has proposed a $5 increase to $19.

Isle of Wight’s sewer rate is also proposed to increase from $7 per 1,000 gallons to $9.

The latest budget draft also includes a 10-cent, or 5.1%, machinery and tools tax rate increase from $1.95 per $100 in assessed value to $2.05.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:49 p.m. on April 26 to clarify Matthew Summit’s remarks as to how pay freezes impact a teacher’s pension at retirement.