SUFFOLK -- Members of the school community filled City Council Chambers as well as the lobby of City Hall Wednesday, asking council members to fund the school division's budget request in its entirety.
Speaker after speaker told the council it was crucial that Suffolk Public Schools (SPS) receive the $53.6 million if the division is expected to keep teachers and try to close the pay gap between it and other local schools systems.
"Would you tolerate ten percent turnover in your police department?" one teacher asked, explaining, "'cause that's what we have happening in our public school system."
Funding for SPS that is included in the proposed budget falls $1.4 million dollars short of the division's request.
"I have a passion for teaching, and there's a passion in this city as well for that," said Susan Markham from Creekside Elementary School. "It saddens me, though, to see colleagues that I've grown and worked with to leave."
A study within the past year, which council approved, found a huge difference between what teachers in Suffolk and their counterparts in other cities make. It showed $4.7 million dollars would bring the Suffolk teachers up to market value.
One speaker said he felt the issue was so important that he chose to attend the meeting even though it was his twenty-first wedding anniversary.
"I'm a man of few words," he stated, "retired from the military, but I have a little bit of pride, and it just sickens me to see these other people have to come up here and beg to get paid what they should get paid."
"I am confident that you are aware that a city cannot survive an expansion and growth without the support of a good, solid educational system," said Shea Wilde, a teacher at Creekside Elementary School.
Wilde encouraged each council member to think about a teacher who made a tremendous difference in his or her life and to consider that before voting on the budget in May.
"This thing about, you know, salaries is really crucial," noted Elke Boone, an assistant principal at King's Fork High School. "We really need you to consider that because we need good teachers, and we need them now."
