In the wake of this year’s budget announcement from the FCPS School Board, many teachers have shown frustration at the decision by the board to raise their own salary from $20,000 to $32,000 beginning in 2016. Five members voted in favor, four voted no and three abstained. The board has not, however, granted a pay raise to teachers.

“I have been working here for about nine years, and I’ve only seen a pay raise twice,” English teacher Christopher Bagot said. “It’s frustrating that the school board raised their own salaries, it’s kind of a low blow.”

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” English teacher Julia Hannemann said. “It’s not like it was voted by a committee of community members, it was their personal interest, and it shows you something that three abstained and four voted no. It shows that only five wanted it and were willing to admit it.”

In FCPS schools, the salary that a teacher makes is determined by the “step” that they are on, which is determined by the number of years of experience they have teaching. For example, a teacher on step one with a Master’s Degree in teaching would make $51,500, whereas a teacher on step 20 with a Master’s Degree would make $80,125. The average salary for all teachers in FCPS is around $59,108, which is standard for most Virginia public schools.

For teachers in Fairfax County, the lack of pay raises can have a much more profound impact than in other counties in the region.

Fairfax County is also one of the richest counties in the United States, being the first to reach a six figure median household income. However, our teachers are some of the lowest paid in the region.

The average high school teacher salary for District of Columbia Public Schools was $77,512 in 2013, making it the highest in the region. In Montgomery County, Maryland, it is $70,000. Fairfax County, as stated previously, has an average salary of $59,108.

“I have seen a lot of people go to D.C. and go look at other schools because the pay is going to be better, and if you can go get a $20,00 raise, that’s awesome,” Bagot said.

The lack of pay raises for teachers can have impacts on the life that they are able to maintain for themselves.

To ensure that they themselves feel comfortable with the life that they are living, many teachers will work other jobs on top of their teaching job, whether that is coaching, working on the weekends or over the summer.

Hanneman runs a summer camp each year for four to seven year olds.

“I direct the summer camp because at least early in your career teaching does not pay a ton and I always find when I have more time [like over the summer], I spend more money. And that just does not add up when you have a job that doesn’t pay a ton.”

Bagot also has another job outside of school. He works at Safeway when he is not teaching or coaching football or baseball.

“I have been working at Safeway since I was a junior at Annandale High School. I left a couple times for college, but I went back. I like working there because of the flexibility. At this point, since I have worked so long, I have gotten a pretty good pay raise and the benefits are pretty good,” Bagot said.

While the other jobs are not always necessary to financially support the teachers, some use it to let them live the life that they want.

“I would be fine [without the second job], but a full summer off you spend more money than you make, so it is difficult especially when you live alone,” Hanneman said.

“I can live fine off my teacher’s salary, but to live the life that I want to live and keep up with my friends who have different professions that are able to go do a little bit more than I can would not be possible with just my teaching salary,” Bagot said.

Teachers also work many overtime hours grading papers or staying after with students, which they do not get compensated for.

“During the school year I don’t think I could add up how many hours I work, because it depends. If there are presentations or papers [to grade], or yearbook late nights, it’s countless hours,” Hanneman said. “We are salaried, so we get paid the equivalent of 35 hours a week but we work more and don’t get paid.”

“With teaching, you have your contract hours, but as a coach I’m here everyday after school until  6 p.m. and on game days im here until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.” Bagot said. “Safeway has always been really accommodating for me when I’m coaching a sport. I’m working about three days a week during the season, and I probably work about 12 hours a week [at Safeway] plus my teaching hours. When I’m not in season, I’m working 20 hours [at Safeway].”

Many teachers feel frustrated with the amount that they get paid for the hours that they get put in as well as with the lack of opportunity for advancement.

“[We make] absolutely too little, I wish I felt like I could live more comfortably in this area that I work in without feeling the need to take the second job and being able to spend my summer more freely,” Hanneman said.

“I didn’t come into the profession to make a lot of money so I don’t have a lot of complaints, I make a decent living. However every job gets a raise yearly but I have been working here nine years and I have only gotten two or three raises,” Bagot said. “I think that the starting wages of a teacher is about even with any job, it just doesn’t have the max out potential that any other job has.”

Even when the teacher does have another job, it is not always sufficient enough to sustain them.

“With coaching baseball, you don’t really get paid that much. You get a stipend but it’s probably less than minimum wage because they only budget enough for two or three assistant coaches, so if you want more than that to run a better program you take less money,” Bagot said.

Along with the budget decision to raise board member salaries, the Fairfax County $4 billion budget only includes $2 billion for schools, which is $14 million less than was proposed.

The money for the budget comes from property taxes, which tend to hover around $1 for every $100 that a property is worth.

When Superintendent Karen Garza came to FCPS from Texas, she planned to get pay raises for teachers. While Garza has not yet fully made true to that promise, she has shown initiative in attempting to fulfil it.

However, despite Garza’s best attempts thus far, the amount of money given to FCPS from the County does not account for the influx of new students that is seen each year.

On average, Fairfax County, the most populated jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia with a population of a,118,883 people, sees an influx of around 3,000 students, but the county has not been able to keep up with the rise in numbers.

Despite the gap in salaries between the counties, some AHS teachers love teaching here and they would not want to switch to another school district.

“Teaching is a great profession. I don’t think anybody gets into it for the money or the salary,” Bagot said. “If they could compensate us a little more it would really be appreciated on our end.”