KICKING INTO GEAR: The Battlefield boys soccer team has opened 3-0.
March 28, 2018 | Serving Haymarket, Gainesville and Western Prince William County | Vol. 17, No. 13 | www.PrinceWilliamTimes.com | 50¢
Sports, Page 18
School board approves $1.19 billion budget without teacher cost-of-living raise By Jill Palermo
The $1.19 billion budget the school board passed unanimously March 22 includes a “step” pay raise for the third year in a row. The move comes with a net cost of about $8 million and will provide an average 2.7-percent pay boost for all school-division teachers and staff. But several teachers lobbied the
Times Staff Writer
Before approving a new budget for next school year, the Prince William County School Board lamented their spending plan’s limits, namely what they said is a lack of funding to provide larger raises for the county’s 6,000 teachers.
school board for a more significant pay bump this year, calling on the board to remain competitive with raises proposed in nearby jurisdictions. Both Loudoun and Fairfax counties, for example, are planning teacher raises of between 5 and 6 percent next school year. During the board’s budget mark-
up session last week, School Board member Justin Wilk (Potomac) proposed spending $7 million on a 1-percent cost-of-living increase for teachers on top of the step increase – half of the 2-percent COLA raise teachers requested.
See SCHOOL BOARD, Page 5
‘We’ve got to take a stand’ More than 300 join Manassas March for Our Lives event By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Hope Mills, a senior at Brooke Point High School in Stafford, was among the more than 300 people who joined the March for Our Lives sibling event in Manassas March 24. “I’m tired of being scared and jumping whenever I hear a loud noise” at school, Mills said. INSIDE Calendar....................................ONLINE Classifieds...........................................20 Living 29...............................................9 News....................................................6
While hundreds of thousands descended upon Washington, D.C. Saturday afternoon for the March for Our Lives event, a smaller but similarly committed group lined a busy Manassas intersection for hours March 24 to demand an end to gun violence and the scourge of school shootings. Organizers said the crowd topped 300 over the course of the afternoon. They included grandparents, parents and students who came from as far away as McLean, Burke, Sterling and Ashburn. Many said they were inspired by the Florida high school students’ leadership and felt compelled to join their effort. “We just had to do it. We had to come over from Loudoun County because we’re just so sick of all of this,” said Terri Keys, a grandmother of six from Sterling. “We’ve got to take a stand. We’ve got to end all of this.” See MARCH, Page 5
Obituaries.............................................6 Opinion.................................................8 Puzzle Page........................................17 Real Estate............................................5 Sports.................................................18
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