Henrico School Board to state legislators: raise teacher pay, increase funding for recruitment

Henrico School Board members told the county’s legislative delegation Wednesday that they want the General Assembly to increase funding for teacher pay to the national average; provide more funding for teacher recruitment; and remove the 90-day long-term substitute limit.

Those were among the legislative priorities board members discussed with legislators during a breakfast at the still-under-construction Regency Adult Education Center at Regency Square mall.

School Board chair Marcie Shea spoke at the event, outlining the five priorities that the board has chosen to emphasize ahead of the 2023 legislative session: academic achievement, funding, instructional personnel and teacher recruitment, safe schools and student wellness, and local school board autonomy.

The board developed the list in October and approved it in November.

Shea also gave examples of policies the board would support and oppose under each of those topics.

For example, in the “academic achievement” category, the board supports additional funding for English Learner services. In the “safe schools and student wellness” category, the board supports hiring more school-based mental health professionals such as school psychologists and social workers.

One of the major areas of concern for the school board is teacher recruitment and retention, as the ongoing teacher shortage continues to affect the county’s schools. One suggestion from Henrico officials: the idea of state money covering licensure exam fees for some aspiring teachers.

“If you look at the statistics of how many students are coming out of teacher preparation programs, and how many we need to hire, those numbers don’t match,” Shea said. “We will never be able to staff our classrooms and our schools at the level we want if we don’t get more great people into this profession.”

Though Virginia spends more per capita on elementary and secondary education than anything else, the average teacher’s salary in the state was $57,665 per year in 2019 while the national average was $64,133, according to the Virginia Education Association.

According to Shea, there are no specific bills that the board has in mind yet – the legislative priorities are just a general overview of what the board hopes to see during the 2023 session.

“We’re fortunate that all the legislators, or their aides, from the area were here this morning,” Shea said.

Wednesday’s meeting featured food cooked by high school students in ACE center culinary programs, who arrived well before the 8 a.m. start time to set up a breakfast bar to serve eggs, potatoes, pancakes, breakfast meats, fruit and pastries that they had prepared.

Delores McQuinn, who represents Virginia’s 70th District in the House of Delegates, attended the meeting and said that she appreciates the insight that it provided.

“I have the honor of representing the area I grew up in, and it’s incumbent upon me to be abreast of what the priorities are for the area,” McQuinn said.

After the meeting, HCPS Director of Workforce and Career Development Mac Beaton led legislators and school faculty on a tour of the Regency Adult Education Center. The site, which is currently in the construction process, will allow adults to gain skills in various job fields within a non-school environment.

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Anya Sczerzenie is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar. Sign up here for her free weekly education newsletter.