'Something’s not right'

“Frustrating,” “weirdness,” “jittery,” “uncharted waters” – these are the words Henrico Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone Nelson and other supervisors used during a joint meeting Oct. 22 with the Henrico School Board to describe the two boards’ current working relationship.

The boards arranged the meeting to discuss a proposal for collective bargaining for HCPS employees, which the school board ultimately rejected at its work session Oct. 24. However, discussions at the joint meeting shifted from collective bargaining to some board supervisors’ concerns about animosity between the two boards.

Nelson, who represents the Varina District, said that he had run into “roadblocks” while trying to use his community funds – discretionary funds provided by the county individually to supervisors – to boost certain initiatives at schools in Varina.

“I’m not sure what has happened with us being able to use our community funds to do stuff for students,” Nelson said. “Somewhere along the line over the last year, I’ve run into some roadblocks. I don’t know what has happened, but something is being blocked and principals are all jittery about funding in schools…I don’t want my schools to be impacted because of relationships.”

Nelson, along with Brookland District supervisor Dan Schmitt, said he felt some “weirdness” during his recent visits to schools, with some school principals feeling hesitant to talk about funding.

“I’m just starting to feel – I go places now and I don’t know what’s happening. [Schmitt] said weirdness, something’s not right. Like principals shying off,” Nelson said. “This is where we are, never been there before, uncharted waters for Henrico County Public Schools. So I want to continue to be an advocate. I don’t want to get to the point where I’ve got to deal with a whole bunch of foolishness trying to help.”

Nelson also said he heard news about a letter sent to school principals instructing them to not allow politicians to visit their schools. 

“I don’t understand how we’re at the point where we can tell a federal-elected, state-elected, a local-elected [politician] – that’s already elected, and they participate in paying budgets that fund our schools – that they can’t come to our schools,” Nelson said. “Now we have our principals all shook up and they don’t even want to deal with the main people who make sure we have fields on our schools.”

HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell told supervisors that she regrets any challenges that may have prevented any political officials from visiting schools, saying that they are “more than welcome” to visit. 

“I would like you to know you’re more than welcome as are our local elected officials,” she said. “So if there was any sort of challenge, I regret that. And so as long as the visit’s arranged and not a surprise pop-in so that schools can plan, we welcome that.”

Cashwell also said that HCPS welcomes any funding support from supervisors, but that she wants to make sure that certain schools aren’t receiving more funds or gifts than other schools.

“We’re grateful for the support in any way that it comes…I regret if there’s any bumpiness, and I hope it doesn’t send the message that there isn’t gratefulness,” she said. “We’re just trying to make sure we’re careful about meeting system needs and not furthering equity gaps. So if there are things that need to be replaced at one [school], they may need to be replaced at all [schools].”

At the joint meeting, Nelson also urged the school board to take advantage of significant “new funding” the board of supervisors had received during the past year, saying that his statements would be his “last public appeal to the school board to work with us on trying to do something major” in the schools outside of the budget process.

“We have an industry that was helpful to us this year in terms of extra funding,” Nelson said, referring to the data center industry. “And we still have some schools that we got to help. Let’s not waste this opportunity we have right now, because there’s money that we have right now. Now if you don’t want it, I get it, but I don’t know too many organizations that would turn down the opportunity for something major.”

During a board of supervisors retreat in September, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas told supervisors that he had instructed county finance officials not to include in coming budget proposals any anticipated new tax dollars from data centers in the county, so that those funds instead could be reserved and used to address projects the board deems priorities.

At a school board work session Thursday, board chair Alicia Atkins, who represents the Varina District, said that the board welcomed the opportunity to leverage the extra funds and that its biggest funding priority would be increasing employee salaries. Other priorities would be expanding HCPS’ “Opportunity Schools” initiative, which provides extra stipends to teachers who work at certain hard-to-staff schools, and ensuring that all schools have their maintenance needs covered through the division’s Capital Improvement Plan.

“This is a historic opportunity for us to ensure world class schools across every corner of Henrico County,” she said. “To that end, we want to be clear that our No. 1 funding priority is additional compensation for all employees and salary adjustments for critical positions.”

Atkins also announced that the school board would not vote on a collective bargaining resolution after having several discussions on the topic with the board of supervisors, HCPS staff, and among school board members. However, the board called on Cashwell to consider changing certain language in HCPS employee contracts, enhance employee feedback mechanisms, and provide greater transparency on the HCPS pay scale.

“The board has not reached a majority consensus to advance a resolution for collective bargaining. However, it is important to emphasize that we remain determined to find solutions that align with the needs of our employees, while considering the unique context of Henrico County,” Atkins said. “It requires us to look closely at our internal practices and policies to make changes rooted in employee feedback.”

A number of HCPS staffers, some of whom are members of the Henrico Education Association - the self-described labor union which represents HCPS educators – have publicly advocated for collective bargaining since the fall of last year. 

However, Nelson and other board supervisors said that outside of HEA members, they had not heard from other HCPS staff advocating for collective bargaining.

“This entire year, and even into last year when this first came up, I still – outside of HEA officers or representatives – I have not had one citizen come to me and talk to me about collective bargaining in schools,” Nelson said. “And I know that persons are having conversations, I’m just not hearing it.”

Supervisors also expressed concerns about how collective bargaining would impact the county’s Unified Pay Plan – which places both government and school employees on the same pay scale – and whether collective bargaining would put extra costs on the county.

“It’s hard not to think about the impact on the [UPP],” Nelson said. “So, though the school board will make that decision, it’s hard for me to not be slightly concerned about how this one decision could potentially impact our entire government construction.”

Henrico school board members had previously debated the collective bargaining proposal at a work session Sept. 26, with some members expressing similar concerns about how collective bargaining could have “unintended consequences” for Henrico’s government structure. Madison Irving, the school board’s Three Chopt District representative, said he believed collective bargaining could give more of a voice to HCPS employees.

At last week’s joint meeting, Three Chopt District Supervisor Misty Roundtree said that while she disliked the “ambiguous” language in HCPS’ teacher contracts, she felt that the issue of collective bargaining had brought about too many “divisions” and that school board members should focus more on other issues in schools, such as school accreditation.

“It feels like everybody’s drawing their lines in the sand, everybody’s taking their positions based on what they think they’re supposed to feel about it or whatever,” she said. “In reality, I don’t care what nationally folks are doing. Henrico is a unique place…and whatever the solutions look like that stops schools from being unaccredited, losing accreditation, those are the things that I think we need to get riled up and talking more about. As opposed to having petty differences and debates.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.