Teachers, support staff and parents urge council to fund 10.5% raise and call for apology over district email
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Summary
A string of public commenters at the Feb. 9 joint session urged the city to fully fund a 10.5% raise for support staff and criticized a district-wide email that many said unfairly blamed the union for a communication breakdown; speakers described financial hardship and asked for an apology.
Dozens of teachers, support staff, parents and union leaders used the Feb. 9 joint work session to press Charlottesville City Council to fully fund a tentative collective-bargaining agreement that would raise support professionals' pay by 10.5% and to demand accountability for the district's recent communication to staff.
The public-comment period opened with teacher Bryce Estes, who said the district's Friday email that followed bargaining discussions "left out critical context" and framed the Charlottesville Education Association (CEA) as responsible for a communication breakdown. "Framing this outcome as the union's failure rather than the result of unresolved communication felt misleading and unfair to the workers affected," Estes said.
Speakers across the night described the daily realities behind the raise request: instructional assistants and custodians who work second jobs, staff who lost vehicles while on duty, and employees who say they cannot reliably pay bills. Shamika Henson, an instructional assistant at Jackson Via Elementary, described a November vehicle fire she says left her with a total loss and said the district offered no support; she urged the superintendent and board to do more for staff in crisis.
Abigail Johnson, a first-grade teacher and school union representative, and Michael Salvatierra, vice president of the CEA, urged the board to apologize for the tone of the district's email and asked city council to fund the 10.5% raise. Salvatierra read a letter from a 27-year employee who said the email felt like a public shifting of blame that harmed morale.
Parents and teachers also emphasized the role of instructional assistants in students' daily school experiences. "The 10.5% raise that CEA negotiated with CCS is the bare minimum that she deserves," said parent Alex Heintzeman of an IA who supports his child.
Several speakers explicitly asked the school board for an apology for the email and urged council to find the additional funds to close the roughly $900,000 gap between the division's $2.9 million ask and the $2 million currently in the city draft. The public comment period closed after sustained testimony in support of the raise and calls for clearer, more respectful communication between the district and its unions and staff.
