The Prince William County School Board is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to increase the teacher workday by 30 minutes without any adjustment to teachers’ pay.
The change would affect every public school teacher in the county, extending their shifts from seven hours to seven-and-a-half hours.
“Adding 30 minutes to the teacher workday without additional pay is, in effect, a pay cut,” said one teacher who testified at a school board meeting the week before Thanksgiving.
The proposal has drawn the attention and opposition from the statewide education association that represents K-12 educators.
“There’s not another profession that would take a 30-minute adjustment to workday without additional compensation,” said Carol Bauer of the Virginia Education Association.
Some on the school board disagree.
There are only two school districts in the commonwealth, including Prince William County, where teachers work less than seven-and-a-half hours a day.
“One hundred and ten divisions are at 7.5 work hours. That’s the norm,” board member Jennifer Wall said. “The norm is a 7.5 day in Virginia.”
While the potential increase in hours wouldn’t come with additional pay, the school board and teachers do have a collective bargaining agreement with 7% and 6% pay raises built in over the next two years. New teachers and veteran teachers in Prince William County are the highest paid in the state.
“People say that you value your teachers based on how much you pay them,” School Board Chair Babur Lateef said. “Then, there’s no school board in the state that values their teachers more than us. If you say you value your teachers based on the benefits you give them, then we have the best benefits. There’s no board that’s done better.”
Teachers acknowledge the school board has done well to address pay in the past few years, but many say the issue of additional work should have been brought up during collective bargaining, though that issue isn’t required under the agreement.
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