On Nov. 15, 2021, the Spotsylvania County School Board unanimously approved spending over $10.4 million of the carryover fund on the schools’ health insurance reserve and other employee benefits. This would raise bus driver starting pay, and increase hourly pay rates for custodians by 16 percent.
On Dec. 14, the board voted 4-3 to approve a spending plan for the remaining $4.2 million, including a $1,000 one-time bonus for all division staff.
Chair Kirk Twigg, according to anecdotal evidence, disapproved of the request, providing revised guidance that includes only $5.3 million for the schools’ health insurance reserve; $2.9 million for other employee benefits; and only $2 million for instructional needs such as materials for the Career and Technical Center.
There is no clear answer as of right now, as to the intentions of the revised request by Twigg, but some have speculated that he and other members of the board are concerned about other areas of education, like funding summer programs and equipment.
Long-time critics of Twigg, have begun making assumptions about his reasoning for wanting to slash funds, claiming that he has “disdain” for teachers and staff.
A public meeting is scheduled for Monday, the 7th, and activists have already made plans to disrupt the meeting. Groups like 'Spotsylvania Students for Education’, and 'Ponax Advocacy Coalition' have scheduled a masked silent protest during the meeting.
When reporters from SCSU asked ‘Spotsylvania Students for Education' why they felt the need to protest this meeting, they claimed Kirk Twigg and the board were, “Not hearing student voices.”
Reporters here at SCSU asked for some more concrete reasoning for their claim.
“Spotsylvania Students for Education” declined to respond.
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The meeting took place yesterday at 5:30 pm, and many parents, teachers, and students showed up in support of "funding our future".
The meeting began with members of the board accusing Chair Kirk Twigg of removing funds for teacher pay raises and bus drivers, without cause.
“We just recently received some information from our chairman that the amount going to the board of supervisors has been decreased and there’s no more pay raises for our bus drivers, aids and custodians and that there is no bonus in that carry over as well,”
said previous board chair and current member Shelley.
Several other members of the board continued to demand answers from Twigg as he tried to move the meeting along. At the end of the discussion he finally made this statement:
“Everything that you’ve all touted up here is sheer conjecture,” said Twigg. “Nothing has been achieved between the school board and the county to this point. Should it come to fruition, then we will pass that on to the board for review.”
The meeting ended with few answers, a confusing situation for all the speakers and protestors who came to show their support for teachers and staff.
It appears that all of this controversy stems from an email "leak" from acting superintendent Carol E. Flenard. The email supposedly included a revised budget request from Kirk Twigg, supported by the conservative majority on the board.
Twigg, and vice chair April Gillespie have denied any such request, claiming that nothing is yet concrete, and that next Monday's meeting will provide more in depth information to the public.
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