LYNCHBURG, Va. – About 40 Lynchburg City Schools employees stood out front of E.C. Glass High School Wednesday morning, chanting they want a fair pay raise.
The sound of car horns rang loud in front of the high school as the staff members expressed a clear message: “Staff Pay Matters.”
The rally comes after leaders with the Lynchburg Education Association said they are 11 years overdue on a pay raise.
The group said the city implemented a temporary pay freeze in 2007 because of the economy.
The city is expected to receive $2 million from the commonwealth.
And should that money come, LCS staff members are saying they want to be considered in the conversation when it’s time to distribute it.
“If Lynchburg City Council and the school board and the politicians who have said this over and over again that ‘education is a priority,’ (and) don’t actually make it a priority we’re going to continue to lose teachers. And we’re going to continue to lose people to higher paying jobs downtown or in other counties or other states where they pay the teachers,” Darien McClurg, social studies teacher at E.C. Glass, said.
10 News reached out to the city for comment. City Manager Bonnie Svrcek said: "The FY 2020 budget process will be a work in progress through anticipated council adoption in May 2019. We are not aware of any additional funding coming from the commonwealth as there is no proposal quite yet from the governor. Any speculation regarding the FY 2020 budget is exactly that: speculation."