D.C. School Board Wants $84 Million For Raises, but City May Not Comply
The D.C. Board of Education, heading for another showdown with the D.C. Council during this year's fiscal crisis, is asking for an additional $84 million for pay raises it promised its teachers and other employees.</br></br>The D.C. Council is unlikely to approve the school board's supplemental budget request, according to some council members and staffers, which means that the city's estimated 12,000 teachers and other school employees are unlikely to get pay raises negotiated last year.</br></br>The school board decided Dec. 11 that it would send two budget requests to the council and mayor: The main budget, a $513.5 million proposal that Superintendent Franklin L. Smith described as a "hold- the-line" effort, and a supplemental budget that included an unspecified amount for pay raises.</br></br>At that meeting, several members asked school board President R. David Hall (Ward 2) how much money they were voting on in the supplemental budget. He told them that an exact figure had not been set but that it would be at least $20 million. Every board member then voted for it.</br></br>On Dec. 22, Hall sent a letter to Council Chairman John A. Wilson (D) and Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly stating that the supplemental amount was $84 million, about a 16 percent increase in the $513.5 million budget. The new figure was not announced publicly.