NEWPORT NEWS, Va - Tuesday night's Newport News School Board meeting tackled some big issues dealing with security in the wake of the shooting at Richneck Elementary nearly two months ago in which a 6-year-old shot first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner.
The district proposed a $380 million budget that includes teacher raises, adding more school security guards and mental health services.
Newport News School Board Chairperson Lisa Surles-Law said the district plans to add more behavioral support coaches in the classroom to address student behavior.
"They are coaches that come alongside teachers and administrators in the classroom and schools to help coach assist with behavior," Surles-Law said.
Surles-Law says behavioral coaches are currently in some schools and says the district plans to ramp them up for the upcoming school year.
"It’s an individual who is paying attention to behavior and helping us understand the best way to address it," Surles-Law said.
The chief financial officer for the school district presented this to the school board as part of the proposed budget. The district is evaluating how many of these coaches will be in each school.
Surles-Law says the goal is to ease the workload of teachers and counselors.
"There is more staff for mental health supports so that counselors can be counselors and not have to do other things that have fallen on counselors because of lack of staff," Surles-Law said.
The school district said the goal is to have metal detectors in all schools by March 14. Currently, metal detectors are only in 6 schools.
The district says close to 20 school security guards were hired within the last month. Surles-Law says the district’s goal is to have two guards in each elementary school by the end of the month.
"They will definitely help staff the weapon detection systems," Surles-Law said.
In the proposed budget, the district is proposing teachers receive a raise. They are also proposing that the minimum starting pay for teachers be increased to $50,000. Currently, the starting pay for Newport News teachers is around $48,000.
"We are committing to 5 percent as our proposed amount in our budget for teachers," Surles-Law said.
The school board will hear public comments regarding the proposed budget in next Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The superintendent will recommend budget approval during the March 21 budget meeting.
