Editor, The Smithfield Times:

From both reviewing the available data and from my firsthand experiences, our educators here in Isle of Wight County Schools are essentially working miracles. Our county is nearly the lowest in Hampton Roads in terms of per-pupil spending, yet our students consistently perform better than surrounding counties. 

Our students are being challenged in their classrooms and being exposed to exceptional experiences outside the classroom. The greenhouse projects at the elementary schools are letting kids get hands-on lessons on where food comes from; the gifted program had several amazing field trips this year; and students from Smithfield and Windsor high schools collaborated to develop their own podcast!

So while I am not thrilled with a property tax increase, I would urge our Board of Supervisors to find enough funds to at least cover the teacher pay step increases in the budget. If the step increases go unfunded this would be the second year in a row that our teachers would be asked to go without their step increase. This does not encourage our talented educators to stay with Isle of Wight County Schools, especially since many of our surrounding school districts can offer them higher starting salaries. 

In addition, I would hope we can add the requested Registered Behavior Technician. If you have listened to public comments from our educators at School Board meetings, student behavior is a huge issue in a number of classrooms. Adding the behavior technician would help our teachers deal with one of their main daily issues in class management, and would help our students in need develop the tools they need to manage their own behavior.

Our schools and the Board of Supervisors have taken great steps toward addressing our deferred maintenance issues, and they deserve credit for that. But our facilities are just one piece of the puzzle. We also need to take care of our people, and I hope the Board of Supervisors can find room in the county budget to do that.

 

Greg Brown

Smithfield