Amherst school board OKs budget with 4% raise, $2 2M in CARES Act money newsadvance.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsadvance.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AMHERST â Amherst County Public Schools is set to receive a funding influx of just more than $344,000 in the 2021-22 fiscal year based on the most recent state budget, according to figures presented to the countyâs school board Thursday.
A week prior to the meeting, Superintendent Rob Arnold unveiled a $53.8 million budget proposal with a recommended 3% pay raise for division staff. Based on the most recent figures, the budget plan now is slated at $54.2 million with a recommended 4% pay increase.
A 1% salary increase costs the division $338,787 and is covered with the added state funding. Arnold said a 4% pay hike, coupled with the 1.5% raise in the current fiscal year budget, meets the stateâs threshold for a 5% raise for teachers over the 2020-22 biennium.
Amherst schools budget plan includes 3% pay raise for employees newsadvance.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsadvance.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AMHERST â Amherst Countyâs budget plan for fiscal year 2022 currently is projected at $45.7 million and includes a 1.5% cost-of-living pay raise for county employees, based on figures recently presented to the countyâs board of supervisors.
The budget plan, which County Administrator Dean Rodgers will formally propose in coming weeks, reinstates $700,000 in cuts made last year in part to offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and make way for a staff salary adjustment. Rodgers said the budget that takes effect July 1 is balanced but after that point the countyâs expenses will begin to outpace revenues.
âWe can do it for one more year and the proposed budget does that,â Rodgers said of balancing the figures. âBeyond that, we need either significantly reduced expenditures or increased revenues.â
AMHERST â A group of educators criticized the Amherst County School Boardâs recent direction to school administration staff to postpone a lesson plan on equity and social justice, blasting the move during the public comments session of the boardâs Jan. 14 meeting.
Hollie Jennings, Amherst County Public Schoolsâ supervisor of discipline and compliance, said the lesson was set to roll out beginning the week of Jan. 11 at Amherst County High School, Amherst Middle School and Monelison Middle School. The term equity refers to striving for culturally responsive schools, Jennings said, and the lesson focused on students analyzing media portrayals of past historical events, forming their own opinion and using skills to solve problems.