BUDGET TESTIMONY: FCFT President Steve Greenburg

January 25, 2011 by Steve Greenburg

[During the January 24 School Board Public Hearings on the 2012 FCPS Proposed Budget FCFT President and FEC Member Steve Greenburg delivered the following statement. G. Brandon, Web Editor]

Dr. Dale and Esteemed School Board Members,

My name is Steven Greenburg and I come before you this evening to speak on behalf of members of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers.

“The School Board directed the Superintendent to develop an FY 2012 Proposed Budget that includes employee compensation increases for FCPS staff and committed itself to compensation increases for FY 2012”.

This statement of promise, made by you (the School Board) at the end of the FY 2011 budget, has motivated your workforce to continue with FCPS and careers in education, despite their own personal financial struggles over the past two years. Even with the hardship of delivering quality instruction to a growing student body, and despite cuts in FCPS staffing over the past two years, your workforce has continued to produce amazing results for our children.

FCFT members appreciate this promise. We appreciated it when you carried over $3 million from 2011 to assist you in honoring this commitment of compensation increases. When the Jobs Bill money arrived unexpectedly this fall, and you decided to put that $21 million aside for employee compensation in 2012 (even though some wanted it at mid-year), we stood with you and understood that you were still honoring your original promise. We appreciate that this Board has stated publicly at every opportunity that providing employees with salary increases is THE PRIORITY.

We appreciate the Superintendent’s recommendation for a step and 2% COLA adjustment, and hope that both of these will be funded to provide some economic relief for our members.

The step increase will help us continue to attract and retain the best educators. Our community demands the highest quality instructors, and our children deserve such. The lowering of our salary scale by $800 over the past two years is making it difficult for us to attract the best new teachers to work with our children. Teachers with years of time and training with FCPS have been forced to leave the county or profession entirely due to the freezing of steps.

The COLA adjustment is critical as it impacts the entire workforce. FCFT does not represent principals, assistant principals, or custodians, but we do care about their needs. As a community of educational employees who work tirelessly together in support of each other daily, we do understand that it is time for us ALL to be put back as the priority, as we all work together and are experiencing the same burdens. We are the ones caring directly for our students, daily.

As Daniel Pink said at your Leadership Conference this year, “Money is a motivator. If I was in charge, I’d pay teachers more than enough. Take the money issue off the table so they can focus on their work”.

We care about each other, and what is best for our children.

Those people in FCPS who work with our children are the ones who make the difference; not the programs, not the initiatives, not the software, not the structured planning time.

The people.

School budgets are heavily weighted in human resources because it is human interaction and caring that best facilitates good instruction and comprehensive assessment.

What a brilliant man. I listened to him. I know you did, as well.

FCFT and its members will appreciate this Board’s commitment over the next few months as we take time to help them educate the community and our community leaders as to the need for providing the schools with appropriate funding.

We will help them to see the value of investing in their most critical infrastructure, their schools. It is the school system that ultimately attracts the good businesses, high quality jobs, and workers. It is the promise of the schools that has truest impact on the real estate values and bond rating. We will help this Board to lobby our Board of Supervisors for a transfer that appropriately funds our public education system.

But mostly, we will appreciate this Board delivering on its promise. That promise that “includes employee compensation increases for FCPS staff,” as the Board has “committed itself to compensation increases for FY 2012” is desperately needed.

FCFT and its members also care about class size; but our priority is compensation increases for all employees;

FCFT and its members care about maintaining our VRS system and health benefits; but our priority is compensation increases for all employees;

FCFT and its members also care about early childhood education investments, like the funding of Full Day Kindergarten; but our priority is compensation for all employees.

We appreciate that this too is this Board’s priority, and will remain so until the end.

Thank you for your time this evening, and for making us the priority, just as we make the children of this county our priority every day.

Steven L. Greenburg

President, Fairfax County Federation of Teachers

AFT / AFL-CIO #2401

"FCFT members educate, protect, and love our children. They are the BEST, and DESERVE the BEST."