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Vol. XXXIV No. o. 42
April 21, 2021
School board looks at compensation issues By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – Employee compensation remains a huge focus for the Powhatan County School Board as it delves into all aspects of taking care of its employees. During the board’s meeting on Tuesday, April 13, compensation in the various forms it takes took up a great deal of time in discussion as members try to decide the best ways forward. During the meeting, the board discussed a variety of topics, including salary compression, raises for the next school year, retirement benefits, health insurance rates, and bonuses to thank employees for their outstanding service during the pandemic year. Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, led
most of the discussions, the majority of which the board has shown they still have more questions to be answered before they will move forward. Salary compression Salary compression and teacher pay scales were once again a hot topic among board members as they weigh what can be addressed in the upcoming budget and what areas will take longer to find the right solution. The school board members received a breakdown of the teacher salary scales from their first year up to 35 years, what percentage staff proposed to increase each step on the scale, and the resulting salary amount for the fiscal year (FY) 2021-2022 school year. All of the salary steps increased by a
Kinderga rten Registrat ion Day
PHOTO BY LAURA McFARLAND
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
Powhatan County Public Schools’ began in-person registration on April 15 for incoming kindergarteners. Lidia Ferman and her son Emerson registered at Flat Rock Elementary. See more photos page 8A.
minimum of 5%, which is the proposed increase for county and school employees across the board this year. However, the school board also decided to put money toward targeted increases this year. The issues was raised because of compression among the longest-serving teachers, specifically those in steps 22 and above, whose position was being paid more than the same position with similar years of experience in FY 2009. But while the scale Jones presented does address those longer serving pay scales (steps 28 to 35 each receive between about 7% to 8.7% increases), every step except the first year saw some increase over 5%. And a few teachers pointed out during public comment that there are teachers in the range of steps 11 to 19 that would see a higher per-
centage raise than steps 22 to 27. Jones explained the targeted increases at the lower steps as a way to prevent compression from happening again in a few years. “It is just an attempt to try to fix the scale so that it is a logical scale that goes up by incremental amounts that make sense, that you can justify, and that get rid of compression in the future,” he said. Chairwoman Kim Hymel, who represents District 5, was dissatisfied with this proposition, saying more needed to be done to address the compression issue with the longest-serving teachers. If the division really wants to fix its problems, it has stop doing the things the way it has always done, she said. One solution she proposed was not see COMPENSATION, pg. 5
Legislation named in honor of local firefighter reintroduced in Congress By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – A bill named for a Powhatan firefighter aimed at providing veteran firefighters with fair compensation, healthcare, and retirement benefits they’ve earned through their service was recently reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, reintroduced a bipartisan bill known as the Michael Lecik Military Firefighters Protection Act, named in honor of Mike Lecik, who died on March 16, 2021, at age 41, after a long battle with cancer. Mike Lecik served as a U.S. Air Force firefighter and was twice deployed to the Middle East. He then transitioned to the civilian fire service, both professionally and as a volunteer with the Huguenot Volunteer Fire Department in his spare time. In January 2019, Lecik was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer that has been tied to the high-risk, carcinogenic workplace CONTRIBUTED PHOTO conditions that come with being a military firefighter. The Veterans Health Administration does not cur- Late firefighter Mike Lecik is shown with rently cover treatment costs related to diseases like his family, wife Tiffany, from left, and see LECIK, pg. 6
daughters Amery, Aubry, and Adalyn.
Veteran shares harrowing Vietnam memories Editor’s note: Beginning on Memorial Day 2012, the nation began participating in the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War – a 13-year program to honor and give thanks to a generation of proud Americans who served their country in one of the most challenging missions it ever faced. This week, a Powhatan resident who served in Vietnam will mark a 50th anniversary of his own. This is his story of survival.
By Jesse Andrews Special to the Powhatan Today
"You always take care of your men before you take care of yourself." Fred Behrens lived this truth on every mission he flew until his luck ran out on April 23, 1971. Behrens was born into a military family in 1947, graduated from high school in Edison, New Jersey, in 1966, and attended community college until 1968. In April 1969, Behrens entered the U.S. Army and received his basic training as an infantryman before going on to flight school. He graduated in May 1970 with advanced flight training, including helicopters such as the Bell UH-1 (Huey), the workhorse aircraft of the Vietnam conflict, and the much smaller Hughes OH-6 Scout helicopter. Now a warrant officer,
Behrens’ new job flying helicopters in Vietnam had a life expectancy between 13 and 30 days. Behrens arrived in Vietnam on June 6, 1970, and was sent to the 101st Airborne Division stationed in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). There he was assigned to Company B of the 101st Assault Helicopter Battalion. He spent the next five months ferrying troops to remote landing zones (LZ), flying resupply missions, picking up troops when their missions were completed, “taking care of the troops,” as he put it. He flew every day – and often at night. In September 1970, he transferred to a Scout helicopter unit, flying the smaller OH6, commonly called the “Loach," on "hunter-killer" team missions. This was dangerous work, especially for the Loach pilot and his one-man crew. In November 1970, Behrens transferred to the Air Ambulance Platoon of the 326th Medical Battalion, aka Eagle Dustoff, located at Phu Bai. A hospital had been set up there. Flying dustoff, which is a military term for the emergency evacuation of casualties from a combat zone, was a daily job but the pilots were limited to
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Fred Behrens of Powhatan, shown 50 years ago and today, served as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War.
120 hours of flight time in 30 days. After 120 hours, the stress became overwhelming, creating the possibility of making mistakes. Behrens said that he often exceeded the limit because there just weren't enough pilots to keep up with the calls. On his first dustoff mission, he picked up two wounded infantrymen and flew them back to Phu Bai. When he later asked the surgeon how they were, he learned that one of them had died. Behrens said this sent him into a state of depression; he had not imagined at that point that anyone he
medevacked would die. He came to terms with it, but he never again asked about the wounded. “After that, I simply chose to believe they all survived,” he said. From November 1970 until April 23, 1971, Behrens flew countless dustoff missions. “The missions we did, picking up all those gruesomely wounded guys, was horrible,” he said. “But we were saving American lives, and we had a really dedicated feeling about see VETERAN, pg. 4