Pay increases for division employees are the major driver of a 19% increase in the Nelson County Public Schools budget, which school board members presented to the board of supervisors on March 29.

The schools’ budget stands at $32.8 million and requires a county contribution of $19 million, compared to the $15.8 million the county funded the schools towards its $27.5 million approved 2022 budget. The joint meeting allowed both boards to weigh in on the budget proposal.

Irvin outlined the board’s budget objectives and said school safety is a first priority. She addressed a March 25 incident where a student from Tabb High School in Yorktown visited Nelson County High School without registering as a visitor in the main office, instead entering the building with other students, according to the Nelson County Public Schools Facebook page.

“The stated purpose of the young man’s visit was to check out the school as his family may be moving to the area. The young man was detained and questioned by administration and by local authorities. After a thorough investigation, thankfully, there was no apparent danger to students or staff,” NCPS said.

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Irvin informed the board the schools have been fortunate to receive school security and safety grants to update camera systems and secure entries, “but we still have work to do.”

Irvin explained a number of factors have driven the budget increase. An increased assessment from the formula that determines state funding means NCPS will receive $331,909 less in state funding. The division’s health insurance renewal also calls for a 10.5% increase or $434,813 in premiums.

Irvin addressed what she called “dramatic learning loss” from two nontraditional school years.

“Some kids had moms and dads at home that could help them with their assignments and could even move them through at an advanced rate. Some were on autopilot and some didn’t have internet at all so they could only get paper and pen work when it was available to them,” Irvin said. She said the division has seen growth but estimated students are still six months behind where they should be.

A schools’ budget synopsis from January 13 shows the schools receiving $3.9 million in temporary federal COVID-19 funding. According to budget documents, these funds are restricted for the use of projects which address learning loss, remediation, ventilations or facility improvements to address indoor air quality.

Irvin said the schools’ budget is 80% salaries, wages and fringe benefits.

“We are a labor intensive organization. So it’s hard to do anything with our budget that doesn’t affect people or programs. We want a highly qualified workforce. We want competitive compensation,” she said.

Interim Superintendent Joseph Cox addressed a letter to the board of supervisors on March 14 on behalf of the school board summarizing the schools’ budget request. He said the budget is based on former governor Northam’s budget, which calls for a 5% salary increase for SOQ, or standards of quality, funded positions.

The schools’ proposed budget also establishes a $20 per hour minimum wage for support staff and adjusts seniority steps 20 through 30 on the teacher pay scale to become the 25th highest in the state, Cox wrote.

“We really need to do something to try to attract bus drivers. We really need to up that pay,” East District school board representative George Cheape said.

Irvin estimated the division is short five to six bus drivers, with mechanics and other staff members stepping in as needed, “which is not ideal.”

The budget also includes a 0.5% salary increase between seniority steps. In a February interview, Irvin explained the change will reward teachers every year they stay with the division. Previous seniority steps rewarded teachers with a larger lump sum less frequently, Irvin said, using a 2.5% increase every 5 years as an example.

School Board North District Representative Janet Turner-Giles said the adjustment will eliminate the problem of veteran teachers earning the same salaries as new teachers.

Turner-Giles also said division teachers have been stretched especially thin given a substitute teacher shortage — only ⅔ of vacancies currently are filled by substitute teachers; the other ⅓ are being filled by staff members who Turner-Giles said have had to double up on their teaching roles and forego planning sessions.

She said the situation was not sustainable: “so that is why you see the numbers that are in our budget.” Substitute teachers will be included in the support staff salary augmentation.

Irvin explained to the boards why maintaining competitive salaries is important to the division.

“There are not enough licensed teachers within the boundaries of Nelson County to be able to outfit our schools. So we have to hire folks from outside the region and bring them in so that we have coverage in our classrooms. And so when they have to drive in and incur that additional expense we think we have to pay a bit more to get them to come on board,” she said of the division’s salaried teachers.

Irvin added the board’s decision years ago to front-end its pay scale has allowed the division to keep a majority of its teaching positions filled and avoid for the most part the “empty classrooms” she said other divisions are struggling with.

“We have a few, but it could be much worse,” Irvin said.

According to Irvin’s presentation, the $50,832 annual starting salary for a teacher in Nelson County is the highest of seven nearby localities, including Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and ranks fifth in the state. But the current 20-year veteran teacher salary of $55,560 ranks 54th in the state, well behind $66,551 in Charlottesville and $62,428 in Albemarle. The current 30-year veteran teacher salary of $60,289 in Nelson County ranks 92nd in the state behind $76,541 in Charlottesville and $70,975 in Albemarle.

“10, 15, 20 years out when that pay scale catches up, that’s when we lose our most experienced teachers,” Cheape said.

School Board members thanked North District Supervisor Tommy Harvey for his continued support for the schools; Harvey has held the North District seat for 38 years.

“The school system always ranks very high on the county budget. We hope to give you what you need, not what you want,” Harvey said, adding “We’ve got a tough job in a rural area like this. We don’t have the wealthiest taxpayers.”

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For those looking for services for ductwork cleaning in North Las Vegas and Las Vegas, Nevada, Duct-Pro is the right company.

This press release was orginally distributed by ReleaseWire

Las Vegas, NV — (ReleaseWire) — 04/06/2022 — Ductwork is an integral part of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The purpose of the system is to deliver and remove air to ensure acceptable indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

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WOODBRIDGE – The township has approved an emergency contract of $221,350 for an engineering firm to conduct radiological assessments at Colonia High School, following a 1989 graduate’s research indicating a possible link between the school and brain tumor cases among former students and staff.

T&M Associates of Middletown and its team of environmentalists are scheduled to begin collecting data at the high school this weekend by placing radon canisters throughout the building to collect indoor air samples, according to township officials. The work will be done in cooperation with Woodbridge Township School District.

“It’s too important. We’re just doing it,” said Mayor John E. McCormac.

The canisters do not pose any danger and do not emit any substance and are routinely used in homes, businesses and schools to collect radon measurements, township officials said. They will remain in place for 14 days before being sent to a lab for analysis.

A report outlining results is expected in about a month, McCormac said. 

“I hope the results come back with absolutely nothing,” he said.

Ionizing radiation

T&M Associates has already started conducting historic site research to obtain records related to the school’s construction in 1967 to today. In addition, T&M and Cabrera Services Inc, a radiological and environmental remediation company, will acquire real time radiation measurements from the interior and exterior of the building as part of an intensive survey of all 28 acres of the Colonia High School property.

“We got the state and federal agencies involved, and we’re starting some testing of the grounds and the air this weekend,” McCormac said. 

The township and school district have had discussions and meetings with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the state Department of Health, the state Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone’s Office.

Last month McCormac and Superintendent of Schools Joseph Massimino became aware of health-related concerns reported on social media about a potential connection between Colonia High School and graduates who have developed brain tumors.

McCormac said he was very concerned to learn of the possible link.

“It seems like in a little over a 20-year period to have 65 people on a list is somewhat alarming, it’s quite alarming,” said the mayor, who lives just blocks away from Colonia High School, but added the link only appears to pertain to people who attended or worked at the high school. “But I understand why anyone would be concerned.” 

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McCormac said residents are expressing concerns and the township is working to keep everyone updated. He said the site was vacant land until the school was built in 1967, so he believes there is little chance anything was in the ground before then, but if there is anything on site it could have come from fill during the construction phase.

The township has filed an Open Public Records Act request with the state Department of Education to get its files from 55 years ago when the school was built, the mayor said.

In early March, Al Lupiano, 50, of Jamesburg, a 1989 Colonia High School graduate, posted on Facebook that his 44-year-old sister, Angela DeCillis, a 1995 Colonia High School graduate, died in February from a rare, highly aggressive malignant glioma brain tumor on the left side of her brain, that had been diagnosed in August 2021.

The same day his sister was diagnosed, his wife, Michele, a 1991 Colonia High School graduate, was diagnosed with a large acoustic neuroma, a rare brain tumor which is life-threatening if left untreated. In 1999 when Lupiano was 27, he too was diagnosed with a large acoustic neuroma on the left side of his brain.

Both his wife and sister were assigned the same doctor for treatment. Discussions with that doctor about the rarity of three family members all being diagnosed with brain tumors led to Lupiano’s quest for more research because radiation exposure is a well-documented cause of brain tumors.

Lupiano began researching to see if other Woodbridge friends and family members had been diagnosed with brain tumors.  He initially found 15 people, all Colonia High School graduates from around 1975 to 1995, had them, he said.

Since starting his research, Lupiano said that number has increased to about 90 people, including about 10 who were school staff members, some who worked in the cafeteria and others from the athletic department.

“I don’t know what the cause is,” Lupiano said.

But he made a promise to his late sister that he would find out.

Email: [email protected] 

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2022 (HealthDay News) — For children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the proportion of admissions with adverse renal outcomes decreased from 2006 to 2019, but racial disparities in outcomes persisted, according to a study published online April 6 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Joyce C. Chang, M.D., from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, and colleagues examined temporal trends in renal outcomes and racial disparities among hospitalized children with SLE from the Pediatric Health Information System inpatient database (2006 to 2019). Data were included for 20,893 admissions for 7,434 SLE patients: 32, 16, 12, and 8 percent were Black, Hispanic White, Hispanic other, and Asian, respectively.

The researchers found that over time, there was a decrease in the proportions of admissions with adverse renal outcomes. Black children had a persistently higher risk for adverse renal outcomes at any admission (odds ratio, 2.5 versus non-Hispanic Whites). The risk for incident renal outcomes remained higher for Black and Asian children, driven by end-stage renal disease among Black children and dialysis among Asian children (odds ratios, 1.6 and 1.7, respectively). There was no significant change in relative disparities over time.

“Pediatric lupus care has come a long way, but it is clear that as a community, pediatric rheumatologists need to be more intentional in our efforts to reduce health disparities and join forces with other specialties that have done so successfully,” Chang said in a statement.

One author disclosed financial ties to GlaxoSmithKline.

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)

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By Dr. Jeff Markin

For The Spokesman-Review

Blooming trees and flower buds have arrived. Sneezing, watery eyes and runny noses have, too. Just as we’re emerging outdoors and thousands of people are training to run, jog or walk in Bloomsday, Spokane’s allergy season is in full spring swing.

Common symptoms include sneezing, watery and red eyes, a stuffy nose with congestion and a runny nose with post-nasal drip that can lead to cough or sore throat. Seasonal allergies can make you feel tired and give you puffy eyes, a headache or even itchy ears.

It can be difficult to tell if it’s allergies or a common cold, flu or COVID-19 infection. Typically, allergies don’t cause a fever or body aches. If your symptoms include fever, loss of sense of smell, severe sore throat or cough with shortness of breath, it is recommended that to get tested for COVID-19 and influenza and follow appropriate safety precautions until the results are known.

If you are one of the more than 24.4 million Americans with seasonal allergic rhinitis, what can you do to get ready and protect yourself? It’s a little like training for a 12K run: You can prepare your body and take precautions like regular stretching and graduated conditioning to ensure that you don’t suffer a sprain or get too sore.

Each person is different and needs to know their own strengths and limits and find a training program that works for them. Controlling allergies works best if you can identify your own triggers and plan ahead to prevent allergic reaction and symptoms before your immune system is in full inflammatory response.

Understanding triggers

Some people’s immune systems react strongly to certain triggers in their environment, responding as if to fight off a threat. It’s helpful to know if it’s blooms, dust bunnies or cats that set you off. Allergic rhinitis can be triggered by outdoor allergens like pollen and indoor allergens such as dust mites or dander from pets, both furry and feathered.

Timing can help you figure that out. Allergies are incredibly individual, and people are allergic to different pollens at different times. Early spring brings out tree pollens like birch and cedar, and then flowering pollens and grasses emerge later in spring.

June brings yellow pine pollen season in Spokane, and for many misery with it. In the late summer and fall, harvest time can stir up wheat or barley chaff and dust, which triggers some people. This may be where the term hay fever came from even though it’s not actually the hay causing the allergy.

We tend to think of spring, but I commonly hear allergy complaints as we move into winter. When colder weather hits and people move indoors, their nose gets plugged up, and they start sneezing and coughing, often worse at night. In winter, dust mites and mold can trigger indoor allergies.

When I ask if they changed out their furnace filter or cleaned the dust bunnies out from underneath their bed, they usually say, “No, it’s been awhile, I think over a year!” House dust mite is ubiquitous and gets kicked up and circulated in the bedroom, triggering allergic reactions.

Get ahead of it

Sometimes once you start sneezing, it’s difficult to stop. Those sneezes are a reaction to a protein that triggers an immune response in your mast cells. They produce a histamine response causing your blood vessels to dilate and a runny nose, watering eyes, sneezing or other symptoms.

Ideally, you want to stop that reaction before it starts. There are three main ways for doing that:

Avoid triggers

Limit your time outdoors when you know the pollens you are allergic to might be present in full force, especially on dry, windy days. It’s a good excuse to delegate the yard work to someone else.

Wearing an N95 mask outdoors can help with seasonal allergies. You can track local pollen counts with an app or through your local weather report. Take simple steps to avoid your trigger, whatever it is: Stay away from cats if you are allergic, and wash your bedding frequently in hot water if it’s dust mites that set you off.

Reduce exposure

Getting outside is good for you in lots of other ways, so don’t let allergies make you give up that healthy running or walking. You can reduce the chances of reacting to pollen or other allergens by reducing your contact, too.

Many people find using a nasal saline irrigation helps, such as a saline mist spray, which you can buy over the counter, or using a device called a neti pot. These flush out the nose, reducing contact between the pollen and the mast cells. Saline mist sprays can be kept in your pocket or purse and used throughout the day when outdoors or otherwise triggered. Just don’t overuse saline irrigation and create more irritation.

Showering after you’ve been outdoors or at the end of the day can help reduce allergen contact. You can also improve your indoor air quality, so you aren’t dealing with allergens when you’re not out running. Humidifiers, air filters and replacing your furnace filters regularly can all reduce allergens. You can find furnace filters that are made to filter out fine allergen particulates at your hardware store.

Block the response

Using nasal steroid medication on a regular basis will help stop the hyperactive immune response before it blooms and minimize the cascade of inflammatory responses to pollen like a runny nose and itchy eyes. These over-the-counter medications, such as fluticasone, work directly on the mast cells that trigger the histamine response and can be used even in kids as young as 12. Like regular training, using them regularly during allergy season is most effective.

Managing your allergies before you’re having a reaction works the best. Once the horse is out of the barn, so to speak, you can only treat symptoms. Taking antihistamines blocks the activity on cells in mucous membranes, but the histamines have already been released into your system, so your body is still coping with the immune response.

Decongestants, both nasal sprays and pills, can be effective at easing a stuffy nose in the short term, but can cause a rebound effect where you end up as bad or worse once they wear off. If you have persistent nasal runniness or rhinitis, you also may want to get evaluated by a primary care provider to talk about other causes such as infectious diseases and senile rhinitis.

It’s a great time of year to get outside, enjoy Spokane’s outdoors and get in shape, whether that’s Bloomsday or taking a bike ride around the Centennial Trail. You don’t have to be restricted due to allergies if you take the appropriate precautions and strategies outlined here.

Take care of yourself while doing so by wearing gear like a helmet and reflective clothing, following community standards around coronavirus precautions and minimizing your spring allergy reactions by getting ahead of the symptoms. Good luck with safe and symptom-free training!

Dr. Jeff Markin is a family medicine physician practicing at Kaiser Permanente’s Veradale Medical Center.

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