City Council -School Board Budget Work Session   2/9/2026

That's wild.

I would be wondering about that.

Check test 1, 2, 3.

Check test 1, 2, 3, 4.

To order the Charlottesville City School Board joint work session with City Council.

Today is Thursday, February 9th, 2026.

It is 5 p.m.

Ms. Bryant?

Yes.

All in favor?

Yes.

Thank you.

All right.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Thank you for the city council role.

We, Madam Clerk, we were, Jen Fleisher was going to call in.

Do we know if she's on?

She's on?

Hey, Jen has requested to participate virtually.

I am in Costa Rica.

I did give her the option of, you know, not, you know, relaxing, but she's dedicated and so we won't be taking any votes today.

Councilor Fleisher?

Here.

Councilor Oschrin?

Here.

Vice Mayor Oschrin?

Here.

Councilor Payne?

Here.

Second.

It's been moving properly.

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say yes.

Yes.

All opposed, please say no.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

May I get a motion to approve our proposed agenda?

And all in favor?

Yes.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Before I get started, I just want to make a few remarks.

I want to provide an update to everyone.

First, thank you.

I know people who are watching online probably can't see, but there are a lot of people assembled here, so thank you all for your attendance.

I want to provide you an update.

I am pleased to say that we had a meeting today with CEA and they're going to go ahead and bring our tentative agreement to a vote for its support with the bargaining unit in time for the board to approve its budget on February the 19th.

That agreement would give a 10.5% raise to support professionals each for the next three years.

And that's truly something that I do want to celebrate.

I sincerely want to thank Ms. Gilliken and Ms. Taylor for our meeting today.

I think it was a meeting that was filled with a lot of candor, just genuine support for

the bargaining unit, and it also just allowed us to get back on the same page.

We are in a brave new world of collective bargaining.

I know that I personally did not go to school for it, and I know that my colleagues and Ms. Gilliken and Ms. Taylor echo the same thing, that it's just uncharted waters for us.

And then there will be some difficult moments, but we are going to get through them and we will always do those together.

And I think that it's important to remember that we all want the same thing.

We want great schools for our children, which we know depends on the work of our amazing support staff.

So with that being said, I'm going to jump into our presentation, our budget work session.

If you have been following our budget presentation, some of these slides are the same.

And I'll move through them not quickly.

But council, if you have some questions, feel free to ask your questions as we go through the presentation.

Feel free to stop me.

Next slide, please.

Just want to start by giving kudos to our finance team.

During the winter break, I believe it was, we were informed that once again, Charlottesville City Schools received the Meritorious Budget Award for the budget development process.

And I think that it just reflects, this award just reflects the hard work of a lot of people between the finance and the communications team.

Next slide, please.

There's a statutory requirement that requires the superintendent to present a balanced budget to the school board.

Next slide.

Our budget priorities, just a reminder that we go through a very comprehensive budget priorities process.

That process consists of listening to various stakeholder groups via our PTO surveys, so we get a lot of input.

and developing the budget priorities and then we compiled them using some coding methods to see what the reoccurring themes were.

You see here our budget priorities for the 26-27 school year.

Next slide, please.

We use those priorities to align them to our strategic plan.

So what you will see is the priorities are located at the bottom, and then our strategic plan is located at the top.

Next slide, please.

Fiscal year 27 is a new biennial for the state.

The state has re-benchmarked the local composite index, which is our ability, which is the locality's ability to pay.

CCS peaked during the biennial year with the LCI of 77.02%.

For the fiscal year 27, the LCI decreased 0.37, so the LCI is now 76.66%.

This change, coupled with our ADM, will reflect a decrease in funding for the school division.

Because the LCI went down and the enrollment went down just slightly, we will see some decreases in state monies.

Next slide, please.

This just shows you some comparison.

There are 134 school divisions in Virginia and there are nine that have the maximum LCI of 80.

and then Charlottesville City Schools is number 10 out of all those and so this does put us well above the state average.

The state average for LCI is 41.18

Again, a high LCI reflects a strong local ability to pay resulting in significantly lower state education funds relative to other school divisions.

Next slide, please.

This just shows some enrollment trends.

We attended a conference and they provided this slide and we wanted to include it for people because sometimes people ask, where are the students going?

And so we just want to make sure that everyone understands that our enrollment trends are reflective of what's happening across the state.

The state did peak, the state enrollment peaked in FY23 and then started a modest decline in 25 and it is projected in FY26 that it will sharply decrease and fall off in FY28.

Next slide please.

This shows our enrollment trend, which again, it has some of those same features of the state enrollment trends.

Our ADM stabilized over FY24 and FY25.

However, in FY26, the fall membership did decline by 86 students from 44-43.

and FY25 to 43, 57 and FY26.

And this, again, as I said, is consistent with statewide trends.

Enrollment projections are reflective in lower birth rate.

population mobility, and then the shift in family enrollment choices that occurred over the pandemic.

I know the state reported that there was an uptick in homeschooling during the pandemic.

Next slide, please.

So budget impact on CCS.

What does this mean as far as funding for CCS?

The enrollment projections from September the 30th reduced the statewide aid to the school division by $167 million.

And we are estimating state revenue to decrease by $57,772.

VRS had a rate change and the Governor's budget and the Governor's proposed budget included that.

We applied the lower rate, so initially if you were watching our presentation back during December

We were projecting a much higher VRS rate.

And so since that time, we have gone with the lower, which has helped us with balancing our budget.

And then we've also incorporated vacancy savings from positions that may have gone unfilled.

The current governor's budget proposes a 2% salary increase for SOQ positions.

However, CCS, as I mentioned earlier, we have included in it a 5.5% increase for licensed personnel.

And we've also included back into the presentation the licensed personnel with 10.5% for support professionals.

Next slide, please.

So let's talk about where the money goes.

So of course, as we talk about often, education is primarily a people business.

You will see in this donut that 72% of the FY26 budget goes to salaries and benefits.

And then the next largest expenditure is contractual service for maintenance and transportation.

So when we look at this slide in terms of personnel allocation, it shows that majority of our personnel are located in instruction at 75%.

14% of the personnel are school-based like our custodians, nutrition workers, admin tech.

Administration makes up 12% of our personnel.

And this includes IT, finance, human resources, coordinators, et cetera.

Next slide.

During one of our conversations, and I think this is extremely important for our city council to take note, Ms. Oschrin, I'm always reminded of all her questions when she started on city council.

So I want to make sure that as we're advocating, because that's what we're doing as we're advocating, that you understand as a council what it takes to run a school division.

We've added this slide since the presentation first began because the state says that based on their SOQ formula, the state says that we only need 312 positions to make the school division work.

If you look at that next column, you will see that we employ 579 people within this.

So we are well above the state at well above what the state says we should be funding.

and probably on any given day, I always say it probably feels like we could use 100 more people.

And again, that's just nodding too that the state formula for funding schools for personnel is antiquated.

And so when you point out things, I know we've been talking about, for example, instructional assistants, the state says that we only need 12 instructional assistants for the entire school division.

Yes.

Again, so might have a job in comedy.

The state says we only need 12 positions for instructional assistance.

We employ 82.

So

What you all have to understand is that that means the state is only paying us for 12 out of the 82 positions.

The same thing when you look at school counselors.

The state says we need 13.

We employ 30.

Remember, what's in the SOQ column is what the state funds us for.

anything else we have to that's what we come to our city and say we need some help to we need help in funding this area so it takes a lot for the school divisions to work and I think that this is the hard work this is the the part that as we talk about like what needs advocacy

This is the part that we spend a lot of time talking with.

I have a lot of conversations with Mr. Sanders.

This is what we have a lot of conversations with the city about is there's a big gap in terms of what the state says we should have and what they fund us for and then what actually needs to happen to make the school division work.

Any questions before I move on, counselors?

Yes, a lot of acronyms.

Thank you for explaining them to me every time.

Yes.

Based on our conversations that we had earlier with CEA, I don't feel that we need to spend any time on option A. I think that we move on to option B, please.

Next slide.

Okay.

So based on what's going to be currently proposed to the city, you will see that we already have an agreement with licensed personnel that has an annual increase of five and a half percent.

And you see that that's roughly $2.7 million.

The next slide is, and this is based on our conversation.

No, same slide please.

That next line where it talks about collective bargaining for our support personnel, this is where we've had the conversation relative to the bargaining unit will vote on the contract,

the collective bargaining contract before we bring back the final budget on the 19th and pending all those things we were saying that where I ask of you all is to fund that fund the 10.5 percent salary increase for instructional personnel I'm sorry for support personnel my apologies for support personnel

and that has a cost of $1,375,000 and that's what you see located on that second line.

The administrative staff, we're proposing a salary increase of 3% which is just the step, the step and a half plus the one and a half percent raise and then you see our health insurance increases which are located there.

Any questions from counselors regarding that?

All right.

If not, we'll keep moving.

Here you see we have some personnel savings from reconfiguration.

And so it resulted in 10 FTEs generating about $1.1 million in savings.

These positions, these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.

These positions that are being eliminated, we are ending one principal position and assistant principal position, seven teaching positions that are being eliminated, and a guidance secretary position that's being eliminated.

and we worked, our staff has done the work with anyone who needed to be relocated throughout the school division and again these are positions and not people.

Some additional savings is when we built the budget for this school year, we included the retention bonus that the Walker staff is getting this school year.

We will be able to redirect those funds for the upcoming school year.

And then we had some vacancy savings of about 1.4 million, about 1.8 million.

three, eight million dollars and we will be able to actualize that in our next budget.

Any, was there a question?

I'm sorry.

Pass the mic down to Ms. Bryant so they can hear at home.

Yeah, you got it.

Thank you for your presentation.

My question was a clarifying one.

I want to be clear that my own position, at least I can't speak for the board, was that I thought that we were moving forward with the 10.5 from the start anyway.

Like I thought that that was our position and I know it's definitely what I've supported from the start.

I guess my question is just so that we don't repeat the cycle of miscommunication and

A necessary yes drama around it.

Well, we're going to have some follow up.

I mean, I think the position that I heard from everyone on the board was that the board was advancing the 10 and a half percent.

I think that there are some things that we can continue to work through, that we can continue to work through together.

I think it doesn't require any finger pointing.

I just think that it requires

The process is brand new for everyone.

And I think that there are a lot of lessons learned.

Well, I ask the question because the questions that I raised on Saturday were about what did we need to do to get to this point?

And that was unclear to me.

So my question on Saturday was, hey, like,

I'm uncomfortable with the language that's being put out around this.

I'm uncomfortable with the communication from our end, unfortunately.

And how do we ensure that that doesn't happen again?

And now today we're saying we are 100% moving forward with the 10.5, correct?

Like what are those stipulations?

I would say that what we came to an agreement today is what needs to happen to get to the 10.5 is that the bargaining unit would need to vote on their contract.

I think in the absence of, I think the legal parts

And I mean, and my question is, though, when should we expect that, though, just so that we're not like, yeah, like, what's the date?

I don't know when they're voting, but what we in our conversation today, we know that it's happening before it's going to happen before the night.

Just so that we're clear, you know, that we have like

That was a bit surprising to me that we even had this dilemma because I always thought that the contract would be ratified in time.

So I don't want us to be saying deadlines are missed if we're not clear about what those deadlines are.

Yeah, and I think that's where we as a board can do some work, acknowledge that, to be very clear and diligent about exactly what our budget calendar looks like, exactly what the expectations are.

when those dates are.

And then our collective bargaining team communicates with CEA.

The board is saying, if you don't get it to us by X date, that's the drop date.

We need a ratified contract by drop date.

And so I think that is the work that the board can do in communicating with Dr. Gurley and our collective bargaining team to just be very clear.

And while there were some,

communications about that, about what that looked like.

It kept moving forward despite an initial date.

And so we need to be very clear about that.

No, it's on.

Echoing back with Ziona, Ms. Bryant had just spoke about it's like a date.

I'll check in.

I feel fully confident based on our conversation today.

It's happening.

What I can do is I can communicate with you, with the school board in writing.

Once I do a check in with Ms. Gilliken and with Ms. Taylor, we can check in tomorrow.

I think they're kind of nodding that they will have the dates and then at least tomorrow that will give you an idea of when they're planning to come to the table to

Yeah, I think what I'm sitting with, if I may, is like we cannot, you know, make communications saying that things weren't met on time if that isn't the case.

I don't want us to do further harm to our staff.

And I'm not the only person who feels this way.

I want to be clear.

Like, I feel like everyone wants to support our staff and I can't speak on everyone's behalf.

So please excuse me saying everyone, but I

want to state here for the record just because we're on this topic like we support our staff like and we do not want these types of miscommunications to happen again and I know we all kind of share that like

that perspective but like we do have to follow whatever protocols are outlined and I think as a new board member that's helpful for me to know what those protocols are so that if we're gonna say we want to hold ourselves or you know our staff accountable to to do that collective bargaining agreement properly like I just need us to be very clear so I'll look forward to that email Dr. Gurley thank you for all of your work on this thank you for all the time you've spent on this but

We'll go ahead and move forward here.

Next slide.

This shows our city maintenance and transportation city maintenance and transportation contracts.

And what you see here is there's a maintenance increase.

There's a maintenance increase, which will be about $232,000.

And bringing the entire bringing the

annual amount to about $5.5 million.

No, Ms. Powell can speak to it.

That number is based on the increase just with the status quo because we have not yet been able to work out what the optimal solution would be to rectify the chronic vacancy strategy that's still in conversation.

So that number just contemplates the current model

which still has those 30 hour positions in it.

I'm hopeful that we'll be able to come back to the board with a proposal that will change that, but we're still working through those details.

Okay.

The reason that this is taking so long is we're trying to work through what's the most cost-effective way to address the need and get the right number of full-time positions and just get the model that we need to fill our needs and eliminate the vacancies.

Next slide, please.

This slide remains the same since we met.

Just to point out that we are expanding programs that were in our program of studies, such as the health and medical science position becomes a full-time FTE.

The agricultural program, the vet science teacher will also be an ag teacher at CHS, making that a full FTE.

The gifted teaching position at CHS will become a whole position so that that position will be the lead gifted

Specialists.

You see the three stars beside the bilingual instructional assistants.

We initially had presented a budget that had one that was split.

The board

through this process wants to emphasize the importance of that work.

So through some of the recent work we've been doing, want to include the four positions that currently exist outside of the one at Walker, which goes away because Walker goes away.

So those were the changes since our last update.

Next slide, please.

So we can skip slide option A from our budget because it's not applicable at this time.

We have option B, which shows to our city counterparts our ask.

Our ask is $2.9 million, getting close to $3 million.

but this is our ask which includes the things that we've discussed as it relates to our personnel costs through collective bargaining and our increased ask so that we can support our those bilingual positions which are currently grant funded.

And then this just shows the remainder of our budget calendar.

We have a meeting slated for, it's on the book for Thursday.

So what I can advise at this moment is based on where we are in the crafting of the city budget, we are feverishly working towards balancing the budget.

We're delivering that budget message to council on March 2nd.

It has been a tough process for us this year, a little bit tougher than it has been in prior years.

At this moment, we have $2 million baked into the budget for an increase for the schools ask.

recognizing fully that the ask was going to be more than that based on our original December meeting, which the number was around 6 million.

We're now at 2.9.

Council has been provided at least awareness that that is the number that Dr. Gurley and the board has been working towards.

I think we still have a few final decisions.

Ms. Hammel and I are working through this week specifically

trying to get to a

Thank you.

So I'll start with other councilors.

The one comment that I would make

is two comments.

First is that among the people in this room, counselors probably know the least about the issues that we're confronting today, simply because of the way the process works.

We haven't seen anything from the schools until tonight.

We haven't seen what the city manager is working on.

And that's not to be critical, it's simply to explain the process.

The one thing we know is

that the one point that I would like to make sure that everybody realizes is that counselors realize that by all measures we are already pretty close to the most that we would want to be taxing ourselves.

If you look at all of the different ways in which we tax ourselves and the sort of the fiscal stress monitors and so on, we don't have a lot of extra room

and as we look at schools and dealing with the homeless population and dealing with affordable housing and dealing with transit, there are a lot of important needs and needs that I think almost everybody in the room would acknowledge to be important needs and how we're gonna end up balancing all of these things.

I will be looking forward with great anticipation to Mr. Sanders Juggling Act.

That's all I got.

Thank you.

So I guess for City Council, really the relevant decision is 2 million versus 2.9 million.

It'll be part of your packet.

We're not planning right now to do a formal presentation.

I just think that'll be obviously you know important new data to figure out you know where we're at in terms of balancing it and figuring out where we are.

Another question is the

CEA contractor was the 10.5% salary increase, but there were other components to it as well.

I guess the only other comments I'd offer are things I've said in the past.

I think it's frustrating for everyone when we're going to have to adopt our budget on the city's end before the General Assembly finalizes their budget, which is not the case in Albemarle and many other Virginia localities.

You know, maybe the state budget makes things better.

Maybe it makes things worse.

Maybe there's no change.

But having complete information, I think, would help city council make the best decision we can.

And we're just not going to do that because we're not able to because of our city charter, which I think is just frustrating.

And this is a point, you know, board member Bryant made, but would echo it.

I know for us in the city, we're new to collective bargaining.

Anyway, just know I know we've, you know, we've had lots of negotiations for the first time and right to work state.

There's a lot of new things around it.

On the elected side and the staff side and we've gone through a process with

ATU who are here along with others and the conversations have not always been easy by any means but I think you know sticking to that process whereby the discussions continue if there's a disagreement that can't be mended then it goes to a neutral arbitrator for a fact finding and then if there's still disagreement at that point it comes to city council for final decision I think sticking with that process I just I think has been successful for the city and not

Thank you.

She's okay to be stuck on mute at the moment.

First I do want to acknowledge and appreciate that a late Friday email with

With unexpected news was probably a tough way for most folks in this room to spend their weekend and the time and the energy that I'm sure you all put into interacting with your networks, calling and

And lobbying with each other and to school board was probably extensive.

We also had, or at least I had several calls this weekend as well.

And so I want to thank all of you.

I want to thank the school board members for their time for all of you for your time.

because it's a lot to ask over a weekend, one that's supposed to be, for a lot of us, about somewhat of a holiday.

And so I am glad that we were able to open this meeting with the announcement of a step towards resolution.

But I do want to thank you all for the time and the energy that you all spend this weekend and note that it is appreciated and it is noticed.

As to questions about the budget,

I really hope we can find that extra $900 and some thousand dollars because it has been impressed upon me from various angles about the value that our instructional assistants and other non-licensed members of the school teams have and how much value they add and the tough kind of market out there.

A lot of places they could work, they choose to work here.

They often commute in from far distances.

And bringing their wages up to better compete with other localities, but also help move forward to a livable wage is very important.

We want to provide the best education we can for our kids and having qualified, compassionate people in there helping every day is vital.

So I really hope we can find these extra dollars knowing that

On council, we have a couple of levers we can pull to find the money and that's state regulated.

We have four taxes that we can do.

As Councillor Snook mentioned, we are reaching our fiscal stress level, which means we can't really raise them much more and still

have it make sense to the community for what the money that they're spending and what we're getting out of it.

So there's kind of that zero sum scarcity mentality sometimes where people think that's all we can do.

But we have another option, which is expand the amount of people who are contributing to that tax base instead of just continuing to pull more and more out of the people we have.

That's a fifth lever we have, which is let more people be a part of the community to help pay for the folks that are here.

So that's something we're working on at our level.

But in the meantime,

We have to think about how we can raise some more revenue.

Sorry for what that might end up looking like in the short term.

But the benefit is that we do get to support our staff at the schools, to support our kids.

I've had, like I said, several conversations already, so I feel like I do understand a lot of the features that are described in this budget.

One of the things that I really liked hearing about was the health and medical sciences teacher position becoming full-time and having that kind of pathway to work that is unique

in our school system and some of the other features on this budget request list are interesting and exciting and cool for our school district to have.

So I don't really have any major questions.

Thank you, Natalie.

I appreciate your comments and I concur with you

that it wasn't the ideal way to spend the weekend, but I'm glad that we're able to come to a compromise, city schools and the collective bargaining team.

I think that that is one of the things I love about this community is that we're able to come together and address difficult issues.

We all want what's best for the children, for the students.

And for 16 years, when I was on the school board sitting in your seats, I put together these budgets and these timelines and things, but never with the collective bargaining component.

And the staff that we're proposing to support,

You know, for a day and a half earlier this year, I mean, in September in school year, I actually was a substitute teacher in Tallwood and Trailblazers.

And ironically, because of

Positions like this I thought better because of a conflict of interest that I shouldn't substitute anymore.

But what I did see in that day and a half is the importance of the IAs in the classroom.

I could not have existed that day and that day and a half without

the IA's.

So they just have a critical role, not just helping me out, telling me where everything is, even though it's someone who's been through the schools for years with so much, I didn't know.

And they and they were able to to help take the students to different assignments and pull outs and things like that.

So I'm glad that this budget addresses that.

It's a critical part of what we do and who we are.

And and

I'm glad that we're able to move forward.

I'm going to also, as we get into the depths of our budget discussion, be requesting that we find that extra $900,000 as well.

I think that it shows our support for really critical parts of our classroom and how we're able to

to move this district forward and ultimately the city forward.

So I'm very glad and I think that we, you know, during situations like this, we went through many of these things when we went through our first collective bargaining a couple of years ago.

And, you know, next time you're going to find it's going to be not easier because this is some difficult decisions.

Decision you make and we make has a dollar sign to it.

And we're trying to get more people here with more housing and thus more revenue.

But in the meantime, we're going to have to make some tough decisions.

But that's why you elected all of us to be in these positions to make those difficult decisions.

And we're prepared to do it.

We love this community, at least

I'm sure I speak for others that the engagement in this community is what we're known for and we appreciate the input.

So I only had one question concerning the budget and

And that was the gifted four-time teacher at Charlottesville High School.

So I thought that by the time they got to high school, at that point, they were in the AP classes or honors.

And so what does that position look like?

Sure.

So there's currently someone in that role and he is 0.4.

So he still, so remember that with our current model, and this is before you step before your time leaving the board, we changed our gifted model that encompasses a little over 80% of our student population.

So he does a really good job of supporting our students in their advanced placement work.

He does a lot with their essay writing.

And so he does, that position does a lot of pushing in.

We are also revamping that current position because right now the duties of the lead gifted teacher

It's kind of farmed out throughout the school division.

So we're bringing that position back whole so that it can, so that that teaching, it can all resonate within one lead teacher.

Thank you.

Are there other questions, Michael?

So what we're working on right now is we started the budget process.

We were a little over $13 million out of balance.

We've done a number of things based on information that has come in.

Ms. Hammel's been able to pull various levers to get things as closely aligned as we can.

We're down to a little over $4 million.

We actually met today.

We have a series of things that will get that number very, very low.

But the things that we don't have in that calculation is this $900,000 difference in what the schools ask is versus the $2 million that is in the budget.

We also don't have the transit investment that council has identified you would like us to make, which is $1.4 million for the city share.

The county will cover the other part.

And we're trying to determine if everything else is now covered.

That's what we have until Friday to work out.

And, you know, for tonight, the options are two million, two point nine million.

Nine hundred thousand dollars is roughly the equivalent of one cent increase in the real estate tax.

And when you

So yeah, I mean, I would say

I'm sure on your end, you're looking at everything you can do in terms of reducing spending and hovering vacancies.

I think for council, I would just say, I mean, I think there's expenditures we can at least think about in terms of, you know, investment decisions like the downtown mall street team.

I think that's over 1 million a year.

I mean, that's a decision to fund that instead of

teacher salaries as a priority, but I would just say I think one of the things we're going to have to look at is the real estate tax.

We've increased our most regressive taxes and we are at about the max statewide for the meals tax, but our real estate tax is lower than it was

in terms of the rate than in the early 2000s.

And when that was reduced by, I think, 10 cents, that's created a long-term structural challenge for the city.

And that's the tax we've touched the least.

And I think we're gonna have to confront if we're gonna fund these priorities, that has to be in the conversation.

And again, none of our taxes are perfect, but it is at least the most progressive tax that we have the option to do and comes with that real estate tax relief program.

And if I may, I just want a quick follow up on that.

The four levers that I mentioned earlier that we have to pull are the real estate tax, personal property tax, lodging tax, and meals tax.

Technically, the property tax is the least regressive.

However, in our community where there's over 60% of our residents are renters, that tax is very easily passed on to those renters.

Other questions, comments from council?

So we're just kind of beginning our budget process as, but we have many opportunities for city council for public engagement.

You can continue to email us, but we have great communication with the school board.

And so we will, you know, that will continue.

Thank you mayor, thank you city council members.

I think it truly is the hope of the board that we can move forward with board administration and our union leadership just with that clarity about our roles, timeliness when things are due, accountability because I do agree with my colleagues that our staff does deserve

Fair compensation for the work that they do and the processes by which that happens and so I'm hopeful that we can share some more good news later in the week.

With that, we're going to move on to comments from members of the community and if you have not signed up yet, please do so and we will get public comment underway.

As a reminder, you have three minutes.

Please come to the microphone

State your name and your address and I will get sheets from our clerk.

Again, if you have not yet signed up, please make your way to the podium.

Good evening, my name is Bryce Estes.

I'm here to speak tonight in support of our school support staff and also the CEA.

The people impacted by the email last Friday are the people who keep our schools functioning every day.

Our custodians spent a week clearing our school sidewalks after the snow and ice, coming in on snow days and doing physically demanding and dangerous work so that our buildings could reopen safely.

Our instructional assistants work tirelessly alongside teachers to support students who need additional help.

And our nutrition staff ensures students have new nourishment that they need in order to learn and thrive, including on snow days to reduce the strain at home.

We quite literally couldn't do our jobs without them, so thank you to everyone who's here who does those jobs.

I am so happy for today's update that the support staff will receive the 10.5% raise.

However, I'm deeply concerned by the district's communication that the issue occurred due to the CEA not bringing a revised contract to vote.

That message left out critical context.

We've learned that the CEA repeatedly attempted to clarify unclear contract language and that those attempts went unanswered.

Framing this outcome as the union's failure rather than the result of unresolved communication felt misleading and unfair to the workers affected.

The tone of that communication was also shocking.

It read as though the responsibility was being shifted away from the district and placed squarely on the union, creating a narrative that scapegoats the CEA rather than acknowledging the full situation.

That doesn't feel transparent and it doesn't feel respectful.

In addition to these concerns, I'm also concerned about staffing decisions at the school level.

My class size will increase substantially next year.

Dr. Gurley told us that our goal in the coming years is to close the achievement gap for Black learners.

And our current first graders learn in small class sizes with IA support.

Next year, it will just be me in a room full of diverse learners.

And under these conditions, I will not be able to provide as much scaffolding, as much differentiation,

and individualized support, especially as we adopt new math curriculum.

Larger class sizes and fewer supports do not close gaps, they widen them.

I'm hopeful that we can work together to brainstorm ways to mitigate the impact of these big changes.

I've been proud to work for a district that claims to be on the front lines of supporting educators during a time when people are leaving the profession.

Sorry, I'm so nervous, I'm not a good public speaker.

Children are a lot easier to talk to.

I've been proud to work for a district that claims to be on the front lines of supporting educators during a time when people are leaving the profession in record numbers due to growing demands and diminishing support.

The way that these decisions were communicated undermines that support and commitment.

I urge the board to fully fund the proposed budget, to engage in good faith negotiations with the CEA, and to honor the commitment that was made to our support staff.

Thank you.

All right.

Shemeika Henson.

Shamika Henson.

All right, Abigail Johnson.

Oh, she's coming, thank you.

Hi, so I'm Shamika Henson.

I'm an IA at Jackson Valley Elementary School.

November 25th of 2024, I came into work, clocked in early, doing my job as I do every day.

I had an employee come in and tell me that my truck was on fire.

They had nothing to do with me.

I was at work doing my job.

I sent the email out asking if there was going to be any type of assistance that I could get.

Wasn't a thing.

I sent that to Ms. Powell and Dr. Gurley.

Only Ms. Powell responded.

Which I took that kind of personal because as superintendent I feel like you should have been there for your people the way that you tell us that you're grateful for us.

This event has been heavy on my mind.

I've tried to let it go.

It's hard to do.

After this fire, my vehicle was a total loss.

My vehicle was paid for.

This is transportation to get my kids to school, from school, and personal life in general.

Emotionally, this comes with a lot of stress.

Not just for me, but for my husband because he makes the payments on this vehicle because I work full time for Charlottesville City Schools and I don't make enough to pay for anything.

A community member did a GoFundMe for us to help me and co-workers that this incident affected, but Charlottesville City School did nothing, including the superintendent, that should have shown more support for their employees.

After the incident, I and our co-workers still showed up to work and professionally did our jobs regardless of my feelings, our feelings in general.

Here we are February 2026, months to now, a year has gone by and it feels like this incident has never occurred.

Now one time did the superintendent or anybody from central office or the city of Charlottesville ask if the people affected needed anything or what they can do to help.

We work for this division.

There's been messages stating, oh, let's help our families who food stamps are being withheld.

Let's recognize our staff with warrior recognition.

Now there's a football field that's just been redone.

Thank you, Ms. Henson.

Abigail Johnson.

Abigail Johnson.

Hi, just pulling up what I wrote so that I can remember what I need to say.

My name is Abigail Johnson.

I'm a first grade teacher, also at Jackson VIA, and I'm a union rep at my school.

I'm here today asking desperately that you pass a budget that will fund the 10.5% raise so that our staff can have a living wage.

I am incredibly proud to be a part of the Charlottesville Education Association, or CEA.

I joined just my second year of teaching and became a union rep that year as well.

Early in my teaching career, I knew how important the CEA was in making sure that all educators have real power to advocate for their needs and the needs of their students.

The CEA was involved with advocating for Charlottesville City Schools during the decision regarding the FEI building.

The CEA has created a community for me and so many others, a community that clearly shows up for each other so that we can all be in better school environments and be better for our kids.

The CEA bargained for a contract that improved my material conditions and those of the people that I support, and it was working to do the same for our support professionals.

To hear our school board say anything remotely disparaging about its local union raises major concerns for me as a CCS teacher.

Unions serve to help meet the needs of the people that they represent.

To have a school board and superintendent communicate in a way that is at odds with this does not make me or my colleagues feel supported.

Working in a district that is not advocating for the needs of its educators is not a choice many people will continue to make.

A district that is willing to present false information to undermine the work of our union, as our school board and Dr. Gurley did on Friday, is not a district that serves to meet the needs of our staff and students.

This is the kind of leadership we are seeing on a national level, and it is not one I want our local government to mirror because it negatively impacts the real material needs of our community.

Three and a half percent is not nearly enough of a risk for our support staff.

It doesn't reflect the value of the work they do and it is not enough for them to live on.

I have been told by many of the ESPs in my building things like I can't afford to pay my phone bill so my phone's cut off.

I couldn't afford gas to get to work so I had to call out.

I cried while paying rent this month or I can't come to the joint session because I have to work at my other job.

The question

Sorry.

Our staff need this raise.

That is not a question.

The question is whether or not our city council and school board will work to ensure that the members of our community have what they need to survive.

My ask is that the school board issue an apology for the way that it communicated with its staff about the CEA on Friday, and that our city council fund the 10.5% so that our staff can have a living wage.

Thank you, Ms. Johnson.

Michael Sabatier,

Good evening.

My name is Michael Salvatira.

I've been a teacher at Trailblazer for the last 16 years, and I am the vice president of the Charlottesville Education Association.

I have my own thoughts about the decision that was made by somebody to hit send on that email.

and the disrespect that it brought and the apology that we deserve.

But I'm going to use this time actually to read a letter from one of our IA's at our school, which I think is a more important voice for us to hear right now.

So the letter reads, she is not here because she is working another job.

Dear School Board, City of Charlottesville, local CEA and others, I have struggled deeply with the emotions involved in writing this message, but I feel compelled to speak honestly and clearly.

I am often asked, why continue working there and giving so much of yourself if you can't make ends meet?

My answer has always been simple.

I love what I do, and I believe in the difference I make by doing it.

When collective bargaining first began, I admit I was skeptical.

I did not hold much hope initially.

That changed when I began hearing from people, people who truly know me, people who understand my work, and who recognize my value.

Because of them, my optimism grew, and for the first time in a long while, I felt hopeful and even excited about what might come from this process.

That is why the most recent letter was so shocking.

It quite literally knocked the wind out of me.

My immediate reaction was disappointment and anger, rooted in the feeling that I am neither appreciated nor valued.

I am in my 27th year with CCS and have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

I love my job.

Perhaps that dedication is being taken for granted.

I am one of many employees who give their all every single day only to feel dismissed by the very individuals who claim to see and support us.

After 27 years with CCS, I am still working full-time here and full-time at another job, a situation I have maintained for more than five years.

At my second full-time position, I earn as much as I do at CCS after nearly three decades of service.

That reality does not make sense nor does it feel right.

I also want to address directly the letter sent last week.

I read it multiple times and its tone was deeply troubling.

It came across as unprofessional and appeared to shift blame onto individuals who have consistently gone above and beyond.

Those devote countless hours to supporting both staff and students without hesitation.

The CEA members have sacrificed family time, rest, and personal well-being to simply ensure that hope and support remain possible for others.

I was disappointed by both the approach and the illusion presented in that communication, which was not only hurtful, but also reflected poorly on our division.

I want to acknowledge CEA and express my appreciation for their continued advocacy and support for everyone.

Their willingness to listen, to truly hear our stories, our needs and our hopes has mattered.

I would not take back a single minute of my 27 years of service

I am proud of the work I do and of the colleagues who show up every day giving far more than what is asked of them.

We are valuable.

We deserve to be treated as such.

Please remember this.

Our value is not defined by you.

However, your actions clearly communicate whether or not you value us.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you so much.

Hello members of the school board, city council and Dr. Gurley.

My name is Alex Heintzman and I'm a parent of two kids in Charlottesville City Schools.

My youngest had a hard time in kindergarten, like crying every day, hard time.

And the person that got them through it was an instructional assistant, sat with them, held their hand, took them to lunch, made them want to go to school every day.

and one time I tried to stay after and grab her and kind of tell her how much she was doing for us and how much she meant to us and she was like I gotta go to my second job at Kroger which pays more.

The 10.5% raise that CEA negotiated with CCS is the bare minimum that she deserves.

And the

District's attempt to wriggle out of that promise and blame the union is frankly shameful and we all saw it.

I love Charlottesville City Schools.

Thank you.

Christine Esposito and then Emily Kingsley.

Good evening City Council, School Board members and Dr. Gurley.

My name is Christina Esposito.

This is my 26th year teaching in Charlottesville City Schools and I live in the city.

One of the many CCS t-shirts I own says we are the village.

A village takes care of its people, all of its people.

I am a teacher, but I can't effectively do my job without our school support personnel.

Instructional assistants, CSAs, custodians, cafeteria staff, admin techs, and other SSPs ensure we have the time and space to teach.

Their value to this division is priceless.

I ask City Council to fully fund Dr. Gurley's budget, which includes a 10.5% raise for the people who make up the backbone of our CCS village.

If we are truly better together, advocating for that backbone should be seen only as taking care of our village.

Finger pointing is never helpful or productive.

It was pretty jarring to hear how the school board supported and appreciated its staff on Thursday and sent that email on Friday.

My name is Emily Kingsley.

I am a sixth grade English teacher at Walker and a member of the Union.

And I have two things that I want to speak to tonight.

First, I just want to echo the call for City Council to fully fund the CCS budget, including the 10.5% raise for all ESPs.

And to that end, I have a brief statement to read on behalf of one of my coworkers, a custodian named Abir who works here at Walker.

So this is, these are his words.

He said, I've worked at Walker for three years.

I'm supporting myself, my kids, my parents, and my brother who all live with me.

The 10.5% raise would help me out a lot.

I am struggling to pay my bills and rent.

I work double.

I work Saturday and Sunday at another job.

If we got the raise, I might not have to work on the weekend as well.

So those are words from one of my coworkers here.

And that is just one example that speaks to the necessity of the raise and is also a testament to the incredibly hard work of Shannon Gilliken, Jessica Taylor, and the rest of the CEA bargaining team because it is their dedication and hard work that have gotten our ESPs so much closer to the compensation they deserve.

And on that note, the second thing I want to talk about tonight is echoing what others have said, the very clear anti-union rhetoric in last Friday's all CCS email.

And honestly, I'm just kind of baffled by the thought process behind the communication.

It created so much confusion without providing any answers or context for what was really going on.

It cast blame on the union as if they just decided to give up on ESPs when the reality couldn't be any further from the truth.

And in fact, the whole reason for the delay was because of the bargaining team's insistence on protecting the interests of the entire unit and ensuring that the contract was indeed equitable for all.

I am in full support of the union and the bargaining team, and we will keep showing up and pushing to create the school community that we all want and deserve.

One that's just, equitable, and transparent.

Thank you.

Terri Stipe.

Hello, my name is Terry Stipe.

I am a 19 year music teacher at Sunrise.

I am the building representative for Sunrise and I'm a proud Charlottesville City Schools parent of an amazing sixth and ninth grader.

I do want to begin by expressing gratitude to Dr. Gurley for presenting the budget that does honor the 10.5% raise for our support professionals as we originally bargained.

Thank you for taking the step towards a living wage and fair compensation.

As a parent, as an educator, and as a coworker, I am relieved our schools are stronger and more stable when the people who keep them running are respected and supported.

At the same time, I need to speak honestly about the harm caused by last week's email to staff and families.

That message placed blame on the CEA and by extension on workers' collective voice.

The whiplash was real.

Support professionals were publicly praised all over our social media days earlier for their backbreaking work clearing the snow crete and feeding students all week, only to then receive an email telling us that their bargained raise had effectively been taken away and that someone else was at fault.

The contrast eroded morale and trust across our entire school community.

I do not support anti-union rhetoric or communications from our elected officials that pit educators against one another or undermine trust in the collective bargaining process.

The impact reaches far beyond the bargaining table.

It affects relationships, stability, and ultimately our students.

Our students deserve adults who model cooperation, accountability, and repair.

I am hopeful that honoring the 10 and a half percent raise reflects not only the right outcome, but a renewed commitment to working together.

And I urge city council to fully fund our budget so that we can actually be better together.

Thank you.

Dean Elson.

Hello, everyone.

I just wanted to come up here and say the 10.5% raise will be good.

A person like myself, I work here full-time.

I do part-time at the YMCA, and I also have a part-time business that I run as well.

We're not coming here asking for this, just to be asking if people could come and see what we do on a daily basis.

As a CSA, I'm not only a CSA, I'm a custodian, I'm an IA, I'm a nerd, whatever it takes to get it done.

When the principal

When the principals are in their meetings all day and nobody's available who has to deal with the situation, no admin are available, the CSA takes care of it.

When the counselors, they're all tied up and everything, who's on duty?

The CSAs, we become a counselor and we don't have the education or the training in that, but we fill in those spots and help out as much as we possibly can.

and the custodian staff.

I've seen them become CSAs, counselors, building relationships with the staff, nutrition staff, everybody.

We're all in it together.

Thank you.

Ms. Howard.

Hello board members and city council.

I just wanted to take a few minutes to speak on why it is critical for the city to support the school board by adjusting the budget so the ESPs are granted the contract the collective bargaining team worked so hard to achieve and make history.

As a member of the bargaining team myself, I can say this process required a great deal of time, effort, and commitment.

This work was done with a purpose, fairness, and the future of both our employees and our students and mine.

This is an opportunity for us to come together and move forward together in support of the contract, so today I ask the City Council to fund a 10.5 increase so our staff can earn a living wage.

Many ESPs are working two jobs just to make ends meet.

That kind of strain affects not only the individual, but their families as well, especially during times like these.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to spend time making memories with their loved ones, not missing those memories because they are forced to work a second job after a full day in our schools.

This raise will make a meaningful difference, not just for the mental well being of our ESPs, but for the security and health of the families too.

Thank you, Ms. Howard.

Sydney Reed.

Hi, my name is Sydney Reed.

I am a special education instructional assistant in the LEAP program at Jackson Via Elementary.

I just wanted to say that I am grateful that we are moving towards the

The budget as we thought we were getting.

The email Friday was not only hurtful to many IAs and other support professionals, but it was hurtful to the members of the CEA who worked very hard to get us that agreed upon decision.

So I

would like to hear an apology at some point, but if that is not an option, I am at least glad that you heard how we feel.

Thank you.

Asa, Shenick.

And this will be our last speaker of the evening sign up.

Hi.

I am a sixth grade math teacher here at Walker, and I am planning on moving to CMS next year.

And I believe that we are better together, all of us.

During the beginning of your staff professional development this August, Dr. Gurley presented the keynote address, What We Face We Can Change.

He called us to name the problem.

We are disproportionately failing our students of color, and most of all, our black students.

Those students, especially our most marginalized and most vulnerable students, cannot succeed unless they are fed, unless they are safe, and unless they are in a clean and tidy building, and unless their families who work here in the city schools are supported and paid fairly.

We have staff who can't pay their phone bills, replace their cars, which were destroyed on school grounds while they were doing their jobs, or afford their healthcare premiums.

I can't do my job without them.

I can't teach students without their work.

I urge the city council to fully fund this budget.

I know that you are still trying to find the money for a 10.5% raise.

That's a bare minimum for the people who allow our students to succeed.

I'm a math teacher.

I know that money comes from different pools and I know that we can't just swap things out for one another.

But Dr. Gurley, I would like to remind you that last year you received a raise which brought your salary to over $212,000.

You don't worry about your phone bill because you have a $100 monthly stipend in your contract.

You have a car paid for by the school board.

If it were destroyed, it is school board property and they would replace it.

Your premiums, your healthcare premiums are fully covered in your contract, unlike most of us workers whose premiums are only partially covered by city council.

Your leadership and your expertise are essential.

You are important for our work here.

But so is every one of our support staff.

We cannot do our job without you, and we certainly cannot do our jobs without them.

Once we are all fully compensated, then we will all be better together for our students.

All right.

Thank you.