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New traffic pattern on U.S. 1 in North Stafford
Kantor at home on North Stafford softball field
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MAY 11, 2018
GOLD MEDALIST REMEMBERED WITH MURAL
Wittman hosts symposium at UMW BY MARTY VAN DUYNE
NEWS NET NEWS | FOR INSIDENOVA
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ep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, hosted a Career and Technical Education Symposium at the University of Mary Washington Stafford Campus on May 4. The event drew representatives from area schools, businesses, professional associations and government agencies. In a brief interview Wittman said the event was slated as a means of “Making sure we have a connection between the business community and the educational elements here in our community colleges and that career technical education is connected with the needs of the business community.” According to Wittman, there’s a need for employees to go to work in a technical education field. “I want to make sure that what schools are doing in technical education is reflecting what businesses need in the way of knowledge, skills and abilities so that business will be able to hire those students when they come out of those career technical education programs,” he said. “There’s a lot of different pieces of the puzzle that are going on out there and what I want to do is bring them together, so on the business side schools are understanding what businesses need and that graduates coming out have the needed knowledge, skills and abilities,” said Wittman. He believes the discussions need to
Olympic gold medalist and former Stafford resident Mark Lenzi was remembered during the dedication of a mural reflecting his Olympic accomplishments at a ceremony Saturday afternoon at the Jeff Rouse Swim and Sport Center. Mark Lenzi’s mother, Ellie Lenzi, attended the ceremony with her son Bill Lenzi. Supervisors Meg Bohmke, right, and Cindy Shelton also presented certificates to Linda Arney, left, the art teacher at Stafford High School who directed students from different schools on mural project, and to Lauren Laveroni, second from left, a Stafford High School student who worked on the mural. Lenzi won gold medals at the 1992 Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1996 games. ALEKS DOLZENKO | INSIDENOVA
School board previews fiscal 2019 budget TRACY BELL
tbell@insidenova.com
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he Stafford County School Board discussed its fiscal 2019 budget Tuesday but did not formally adopt it. Instead, the board and its staff previewed what’s to come, including a 2.5 percent raise for all employees. With teacher contracts still in the works, the school board is expected to adopt the budget at a May 15 meeting. Approved in March, the $296.3 million schools’ operating budget re-
quest includes a net increase of just over $10.7 million or 3.8 percent, with no funding gap and a 2.5 percent COLA for all employees. “This really has been a very cohesive experience, unlike other experiences with budgets,” said school board member Patricia Healy, Rock Hill District. “I think this board is 100 percent there for the students… and staff.” The across-the-board raises come at a cost of $5.2 million, according to the school board. The proposed budget includes 78
full-time positions at a cost of $3.91 million, including 13 growth positions, four English as a Second Language teachers, four pre-k teachers, four pre-k paraprofessionals, two music teachers, three focus teachers, two psychology interns, one-anda half counselor positions, a social worker and a speech pathologist. The proposed budget also includes fully funding the teachers’ marketbased scale enhancement at $1.84 million to get Stafford to the median of the market, and fully funding the service-scale enhancement at a cost of $2.1 million for paraprofessionals, bus drivers and monitors to reach the pay-band minimum. “Do we have more to go? Sure we do,” said school board member BUDGET
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