At their October 27 meeting, the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach voted unanimously to affirm recommendations made by Superintendent Dr. Aaron C. Spence that will give division teachers and staff a financial boost.

These recommendations include:

• Providing all full-time employees with a one-time, $1,000 bonus to be received in their Nov. 30 paychecks.
• Providing employees on Step 0 with a 0.25% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA); employees on Steps 1-30 with a 0.5% pay increase; and employees above scale with a 0.5% COLA.
• Giving an increased stipend to teachers who are providing both in-person and virtual instruction.

"One thing we all agree on is the outstanding effort of VBCPS staff during these past months to keep our students safe, fed and engaged in their learning," said Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence. "We have a long way to go to compensate them for their remarkable work, but this is a start."

On March 3, 2020, the School Board approved a resolution to provide a 3.5% salary increase for employees, effective July 1, 2020. The raise was to be allocated as a 0.5% experience step increase for employees on steps 1-30, and a 3% COLA for all employees. Because of the pandemic and subsequent reduced funding from the state, the decision had to be made to eliminate the raise. With personnel costs representing the division's largest expense, this was the only way to absorb the loss of funding without terminating staff. A combination of Cares Act funding and reversion funds has since enabled the division to provide some compensation enhancements. The use of reversion funds is dependent on approval from Virginia Beach City Council.

"The intent of tonight's resolution is to offset the division's limited ability to provide salary increases this year and to assist employees with any hardships faced during this pandemic," explained School Board Chairwoman Carolyn Rye. "I am so gratified that we could make this happen for our hard-working staff."

###

Department of Communications and Community Engagement, [email protected]

Like us on Facebook || Follow us on Twitter || Follow us on Instagram
Visit the Core