Mary McIntyre

I am in my 40s and grew up in North Carolina, why am I just now learning about CORN SWEAT??

They’ve found last minute money for things they really wanted out of budget cycle before. It doesn’t build trust or transparency. This could and should have been handled better.

When leaders eat cake while custodians eat crackers, don’t expect us to just say thank you and mind our own business. //

There are seven people who not only won’t have to share the budget pain our employees face next year, they drastically improved their own economic condition in one fell swoop with magic math money that didn’t exist in the budget until that very day. [Or maybe it did. There was no explanation.] 12/

And the fact that some folks think it is says a lot.

The point is that we were all told the money wasn’t there for a lot of things. It was a bad budget year. Operating budget cuts, personnel cuts. The pain was spread as much as possible which makes it not hurt as much. Right? Except it wasn’t. 11/

Trading, Economia e Finanza | Money.it Money.it propone notizie di Economia e Finanza, Fisco e Lavoro, formazione e analisi per il Trading Online.

3) The last issue is about money and scarcity. It doesn’t matter that this is “only” a ~$56,000 overall outside-of-budget-cycle addition to the budget. It doesn’t matter that it is less than the cost of one entire FTE or that this is ____% of the total budget. That’s not the point. 10/

Do they not do more because of low pay? Or are they doing more and most people are just unaware? If they are unaware, why, and how do you fix it? Those are fair questions to ask.

But don’t get your hackles up that the average taxpayer doesn’t know what you do. Tell them. And maybe do better. 9/

Folks would’ve been more understanding had they outlined the current duties and expectations of the board, the average hours a month it takes them, divided by the current and proposed salaries. We quantify every job in ACPS this way, the SB should too. Now it will just look like being defensive. 8/

Again, those are things that have been said by others, I don’t know how true they are. I don’t email the board often, but when I do, I typically get a response. 😆 But I am who I am. 7/

They rarely see the SB in our schools or events. Some board members don’t reply to emails. Five months a year the SB only has one public meeting. In the meetings they do have, there is little productive discussion and even fewer questions. Some board members miss 3+ meetings a year. 6/

2) My 2nd issue is justification. The truth is that no one knows how much time or work goes into being on the SB.

Strategically, it would’ve made sense for them to include some info about that in their presentation to head off common criticisms from staff and the public: 5/

They knew that, and did it anyway. Because they thought they were right.

Human connection researcher Brené Brown says “I’m not here to be right, I’m here to get it right.”

You can be “right” and lose the optics game all day long. Elected officials ignore that at their own peril. 4/

I warned them in my public comment. As someone very much in touch with staff, I knew immediately how it would be received by the staff losing their jobs AND the staff not getting reclassified (SPED TAs and Tport Assts) AND the staff only getting a 3% raise. 3/

We watched this board slice & dice our budget for nearly two months. The 45 FTEs that were cut- those are people, not just “positions.” 45 FTEs is the equivalent of 90 teaching assistants. Not once during Mar/Apr budget mtgs was SB pay mentioned or talk of that line item being adjusted. Why not? 2/

My objections to the school board raise were NOT because I thought they were already paid enough. I said that in my public comment. There are three main issues:

1) Optics. They had to know how it would look and feel to their 2,800 employees (minus the 45 just cut bc of the budget.) 1/

SB is nowhere near a full-time job. Not even the Chair. BOS, sure. The BOS gave themselves a 3% raise, and I believe could have justified more, but for various reasons chose not to.

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors just voted to increase their compensation in line with the raise given to all other county staff, by 3%. Old pay: $20,199, New Pay: $20,805.

I understand. I still believe it’s too much in a year where people lost their jobs because we didn’t have more money. A gradual raise toward their goal salary would have been more fiscally responsible and less insulting to the staff working their butts off for a 3% raise.

Oh we definitely will. And I said that in my public comment, while I understand that they need to raise their salaries, they shouldn’t have done such a huge leap all in one year- not in the face of all the cuts we just made. Hell, they could have spread it over 2-3 years!

The Albemarle County School Board just voted to raise their own salaries from $7,915 to $16,249.00. 👀 In a year where we lost 45 FTEs because of budget cuts, and the rest of us are getting a raise of 3%.

Don’t tell me they can’t find money for things when they really want to.

I know it must work (otherwise they wouldn’t do it) but it is so annoying when salespeople knock on my door. I don’t want to know your name and I’m not giving you mine. No, I’m not telling you how much I pay for _____.

It’s so true. And it’s really sad, because there is a lot going on in the education world around here that deserves coverage.

We have so little (and almost no comprehensive) coverage of k-12 education in Charlottesville/Albemarle County nowadays and it makes me feel insane sometimes.

Nothing says “Great and Good” like a non-tax-paying, billion-dollar endowed University (which has recently built how many new buildings??) snatching a much-needed property from the public schools that serve the taxpayers of Charlottesville. Unbelievable.

A money tree, in a basket next to a window, with one section of dying leaves.

If your money tree looks like this, does this mean you are going to get money, or…?

The best time for sledding is after the kids have gone to bed. 😆

When we lived in a village in Germany we’d be fined if we didn’t shovel the sidewalk in front of our house by 7am, or if snow stopped before 8pm. Never found out, because we always did it. Other people did it for folks who weren’t able. They also said we’d be fined for mowing grass on a Sunday. 😆

After a few days traveling with friends, I learned a lot about myself. I’m not good at wandering without a destination. I get very irritated by folks who insist on leaving audible notifications on. I don’t drink enough…of anything. I hate mornings (& already knew that 😆 now my friends know it too.)

A big shout-out to all the women who made Christmas happen by thinking what presents would make people happy, shopping, decorating, cooking and cleaning up, often with little acknowledgement.

My husband died this week. He was unfailingly supportive of my writing career, no matter what. Any classes, workshop, retreat, time away, anything--he supported me fully. Every book I have written and published is due to his love. I wish you all such a support. I know how lucky I was.

We lost Chuck Pace today, the school board member who represented my district. My heart is breaking for his wife and 4 kids. I’m forever grateful for his support and advocacy for ACPS employees and our union. He stood up for us when others wouldn’t and will be greatly missed!