Latest news with #Staunton
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Kilmallock edge Na Piarsaigh to earn Limerick SHL glory
Limerick Senior Hurling League final: Kilmallock 0-18 Na Piarsaigh 0-15 Kilmallock are Limerick senior hurling League champions for 2025 after they saw off Na Piarsaigh on an 0-18 to 0-15 scoreline at Claughaun. Conor Staunton starred for 'The Balbec' with an impressive 0-8, his two efforts from play the highlight of what was a contest that never really got going. Both teams were without a litany of starters that one would expect to see come championship in a game that Kilmallock deservedly came out victorious. Pierce Connery got the scoring underway after two minutes but a Ronan Lynch free brought Na Piarsaigh level moments later. Kilmallock, aided by a strong first half breeze, took control from the moment that Graeme Mulcahy put his side back in front. Further scores from Connery and Staunton then saw Kilmallock open a 0-4 to 0-1 advantage with six minutes on the clock. Keith Dempsey stopped the Kilmallock wave with a free but Connery and Staunton restored dominance for the south Limerick outfit. Connery excelled in the first half and his fourth point inside the opening quarter cancelled out a fine Mark Hogan score for Na Piarsaigh. That lead was stretched to five when Kilmallock keeper Conor Hanley-Clarke fired over a long-range free. Oisin O'Reilly made it a six-point lead as the half drew to a close but a Lynch free saw the score at 0-10 to 0-5 in Kilmallock's favour at the break. Lynch kept Na Piarsaigh in touch in the early stages of the second half with a couple of frees but Staunton always had a response for Kilmallock. The lead was at three when the game entered the final quarter but strikes from Mulcahy and Staunton, either side of a Lynch placed ball, handed Kilmallock a four-point buffer. Dempsey (2) and Adrian Breen gave Na Piarsaigh hope as the game headed towards its conclusion but a Staunton free and a superb O'Reilly point from play saw Kilmallock home to victory. Scorers for Kilmallock: C Staunton 0-8 (5f, 1'65), P Connery 0-4, O O'Reilly 0-3, G Mulcahy 0-2, C Hanley-Clarke 0-1 (1f). Scorers for Na Piarsaigh: R Lynch 0-7 (7f), K Dempsey 0-4 (3f), Mark Hogan, G Brown, D Lynch and A Breen 0-1 each. Kilmallock: C Hanley-Clarke; D O'Brien, L English, D Joy; R Egan, A Costello; A Enright; S Quirke, G Enright; S Carroll, C Staunton, G Mulcahy; P Connery, O O'Reilly, S Dowling. Subs: D Woulfe for Carroll (44), P O'Brien for Dowling (49), C Barrett for Mulcahy (58). Na Piarsaigh: P O'Neill; A Dempsey, S Long, P Heaney; A Fitzsimons, R Lynch, T Grimes; J Finn, J O'Keeffe; JJ Carey, K Dempsey, G Brown; Mark Hogan, K Daly, D Lynch. Subs: A Breen for Daly (39), E McEvoy for Heaney (39), Marcus Hogan for Brown (59). Referee: E Stapleton (Doon).
Time Out
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Mrs Warren's Profession
For a script penned in 1893, Mrs Warren's Profession still feels remarkably fresh. Absence has probably made the heart grow fonder when it comes to George Bernard Shaw's problem play. From the very beginning, it's had a fraught staging history. In Victorian England there was general social outcry over its subject matter, and you can understand why: its attitude towards sex work as a functioning product of the capitalist labour market feels bracingly current even today. Yet upon first glance, director Dominic Cooke's production is as traditional as they come; Chloe Lamford's costumes are all lace and ruffles, and 'by Jove!' is exclaimed ad nauseum. But something darker bubbles beneath the surface, hinted at by the ghostly chorus of white-clad women who circle the stage. The words 'prostitute' or 'brothel madam' are never uttered – doing so in polite society would, of course, be wrong – not even by the titular Mrs Warren (Imelda Staunton) whose profession it is. Yet Staunton, as one would expect, is able to create a character rich with contradiction in this vivid production. There's nothing ahistorical in her performance, yet Mrs Warren's monologues could be quoted verbatim by anti-criminalisation campaigners today without the batting of an eyelid. The version of England that greets us, however, is worlds away from Mrs Warren's seedy life. In fact, it's her daughter Vivie (Bessie Carter, Staunton's real-life offspring) who greets us from the revolve stage, which Lamford decked out in hyper-realistic green and pink blossoms. The woman perched amid this pastoral vision is no delicate flower, however. No, Vivie is strong-willed, clear-headed and a little forthright. Having just graduated with honours in mathematics at Cambridge, she's the original woman in STEM; desired by many, but with no interest in such frivolities as romance or art. Initially, her mother hangs in the air through clipped memories and whispers. Vivie knows very little about Mrs Warren, who she spends only a few days with every year on such unannounced visits as the one taking place today. But from discussions with the visiting Mr Praed (Sid Sagar) and other bumbling men who circle Vivie, it's clear there's something big she doesn't know about her mother. All she does know is that there will be a 'battle royale' when her mother arrives, and she will 'win' it. Carter's Vivie is the centre of the play, and Carter imbues this unconventional woman with the appropriate mix of modern and traditional sensibilities, even when Cooke's direction does call on her to spend an awful lot of time just sitting down. But let's be real; it's Staunton we're all here to see, and who draws the eye from the moment she strides onto stage in her striped frock coat. Of course, Staunton is too smart, too empathetic an actor to aim to overpower her fellow actors. Her Mrs Warren is a walking contradiction rather than a larger than life archetype. She holds herself with poise, but the accent – clipped RP on the surface, but with an unmissable east London twang no amount of elocution training can disguise – suggests it's not a status that comes inherently to her. Around the pair zip and weave a cast of male comedy characters, the highlight being Gardner as Vivie's gold-digging sometime love interest Frank. Their collective presence brings a farcical feeling to the show's lighter moments, and serve in direct contrast to the silent, tragic Greek chorus of women who lurk around the edge of the revolve stage and gaze at Vivie, a steely reminder of what she could have been. Between scenes, they slowly strip away the flowers and roll back the grass, so that when mother and daughter finally face off, there are no distractions. These two-hander scenes are where the real mastery of Staunton's performance is made apparent. There is so much subtle pain in her voice when she talks about the circumstances that led her to her, well, profession, and when it does bubble over that raised voice carries real heft. Somehow, the audience can't help but admire Mrs Warren's lack of shame (at least initially), to the point where I found myself nodding in agreement that of all the jobs on offer to her as a poor woman, this was somehow the least degrading. 'What's a woman's worth? What's life worth without self-respect?' she roars, and sells us that she's speaking the truth. Despite clocking in at close to two hours without an interval, this one-act play rarely drags. Tension is created and held even in the frothier in-between scenes. After all the twists and turns along the way, you don't leave with clear answers about Mrs Warren or even her profession. I did, however, leave unexpectedly entertained, and with further confirmation that they don't make actors as interesting as Staunton anymore.
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Lifelong learning: ‘It's been completely transformative for me, really life-affirming'
There are plenty of reasons why people who are well past school-leaving age take third-level courses, says Dr Ciara Staunton, pointing to those she delivers in the area of forensic psychology. 'One course I run is eight weeks long and always full because there are always people fascinated with crime,' she says. 'It has nothing to do with their work. It has nothing to do with anything. It's purely they love a podcast, a TV programme, and the course is a step up from that.' Staunton also runs a diploma course, a two-year part-time programme, but in this case she says every student who takes it 'is a professional working in criminal justice or one of the allied services and they're doing this for professional purposes because it's part of their remit'. 'So there are all sorts of seasons for participating in lifelong learning,' she says. 'People who want to upskill and reskill, people who have moved into a management space but don't have the qualification or who never went to college but have always had that hankering.' READ MORE Staunton is the project director at the national Recognition of Prior Learning in higher education project and is working on an assessment of a recently completed five-year programme intended to enable would-be students to have more account taken of their work or life experience when applying for or participating in courses. The range of that experience can be broad and individuals and institutions alike have traditionally struggled to quantify or properly value it. Sometimes, she suggests, people take a course in what is very much their own area of expertise for the formal qualification or the self-confidence it offers. Fashion consultant and events organiser Fiona Hayes is an example of this. Self-employment, she says, 'can be a very lonely place and I don't know whether this is endemic among women in their 40s, which is a really tricky stage, but I've certainly found myself questioning my ability at times'. The public side of her work, Hayes says, for a long time included a regular slot on daytime TV, which might seem anything but solitary. Yet, she adds, much of the daily routine is far more insular and studying at the University of Limerick (UL) has been has been hugely beneficial personally and professionally. On the face it, opting to do a professional diploma in public relations and communications might be taken for studying what she already knew, but Hayes says the experience has been 'completely transformative for me, really life-affirming'. 'Originally the decision was partly to do with the fact I'd never got a degree and so I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder, but I didn't know whether I'd be able to negotiate a master's but it's been an eye-opener,' she says. 'The course is delivered in a way that takes account of the fact most people are working, there is flexibility around the delivery of assignments and the network of people I've connected with is really worthwhile. And the content is very relevant to me, I'm already applying things I'm learning to my work, thinking more strategically about the things that I do.' Hayes, who is progressing towards the master's by way of shorter diploma courses, was one of the speakers at UL's recent Transforming Higher Education conference, which also heard the story of Diego Silva, a Brazilian with a background in engineering who was working until recently as a night porter while getting the Irish qualifications required to resume his professional career. These, say people involved in the sector, are the sorts stories that are going to get more common as lifelong learning becomes intertwined with career evolution. A greater need for people to retrain seems inevitable given the scale of change coming to many workplaces. A UN-backed report published this month suggests up to 40 per cent of global jobs will be affected by technological change, most obviously artificial intelligence , in the coming years, with 33 per cent of roles in countries such as Ireland said to be exposed to automation. The scale of it all has prompted an array of educational initiatives intended to facilitate upskilling and reskilling through shorter and more flexibly structured courses, with a view to recognising experience and, in some cases, offering significant funding to help with fees. However, the proportion of people involved remains relatively modest. The numbers aged over 24 starting a full degree course in recent years have declined significantly, with the scale of the demands involved seen as off-putting by many. Similar figures for postgraduate courses jumped by more than 20 per cent to nearly 40,000 during the Covid-19 pandemic, and have remained high since. There has also been a growing emphasis on shorter, specialised courses packaged as building blocks to more prestigious qualifications. What once might have been a certificate course is now a micro-credential, or 'microcred', a key part of a developing strategy to facilitate largely career-related learning. There are about 500 course options in colleges involved in the Irish Universities Association 's initiative, many of them in the business and technology areas but with far more options around the country. Student feedback tends to be very positive, although the cost, at anything between €250 and €2,000, can be pretty substantial. 'A very high volume are employer-sponsored,' says Orla Bannon, head of careers and development at Trinity College Dublin, where more than 1,000 people have completed microcreds in recent years. 'Employers are encouraging people to do the courses in the way they have always encouraged people to do, say, aMBA. Microcredentials are now included in a lot of those portfolios, which is great.' More needs to be done, employer representatives say, and help is needed to pay for it. 'There has been a huge investment by employers into the National Training Fund and it's at times like these we should see that investment coming back through into the workforce,' says Maeve McElwee, executive director of employer relations at Ibec. 'AI is going to have a huge impact over the next two to three years, it isn't five to 10 years away, it's much closer. This is the time now that we should be looking at how we can upskill and reskill, both in the traditional skills and also in AI literacy.'
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘You wouldn't pick us out as mother and daughter!': Imelda Staunton and Bessie Carter on acting together for the first time
'It's amazing that I came from you,' says Bessie Carter to her mother, Imelda Staunton, during a break in rehearsals for the forthcoming revival of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession, in which they'll play a mother and daughter and share a stage for the first time. She has a point. Carter, 31, best known as Bridgerton's Prudence Featherington, is 5ft 10 and aquiline, glamorous in a maroon leather coat and silver-studded shoes. Staunton, 69, is barely 5ft tall, quiet and unassuming in slacks and a blouse, short grey hair pinned back. There's no hint of grandeur to this theatrical dame, who was Oscar-nominated for her performance in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake in 2004, played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series from 2007 and was the last iteration of Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix's The Crown. Staunton's stellar stage career in both straight plays and musicals also brought her a fifth Olivier award for her recent performance in Hello, Dolly! at the Palladium. If anything, she seems slightly in awe of her only child with her husband of 41 years, Jim Carter (AKA Downton Abbey's Mr Carson). 'She's everything I could never be, this tall, elegant, confident, gorgeous woman,' Staunton says. 'I just sit here and think: 'In God's name, how did that happen?'' 'I've got your eyes and dad's legs,' Bessie comments. (Both women do indeed have piercing blue eyes.) 'Fortunately there's a line in this play about how you can't tell that the characters are mother and daughter, because you wouldn't really pick us out in a crowd [as related]. But it's always been a life dream of mine to work together.' The dread term 'nepo baby' hangs in the air for a moment before Staunton exorcises it. 'Surgeons' children become surgeons,' she says. 'Should they be penalised because their parents have done the job before them?' Bessie says the acting profession was demystified for her as a child: their West Hampstead home was frequently visited by the likes of Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, with whom Staunton appeared in the 1992 comedy Peter's Friends. Also she observed her parents as jobbing actors before Vera Drake, and then Harry Potter and Downton, kicked them into a different league of celebrity. Acting, when she was at school, 'was all about fun and dressing up, and being able to carry that on as a grownup seemed like the biggest privilege. But I didn't want any handouts,' she says. 'One of my biggest things is that I got into the National Youth Theatre and then Guildhall [School of Music and Drama] without them knowing who my parents were. Of course, if this were my first gig out of drama school it'd be very different.' Staunton says that for her and Carter, it would only have been a difficult decision to let their daughter act if they didn't believe she could make a success of it: 'That would have been hard, because you've got to be honest in those situations. But she was fine, and she's had to make her own way. We didn't want her to be handed into the business by us because that wouldn't have shown any respect.' After parts in Cranford, Doc Martin, Howards End and Beecham House, Bessie landed the role of Prudence, the snooty and sexually unfulfilled older sister of Nicola Coughlan's Penelope Featherington, AKA Lady Whistledown, in Bridgerton in 2020. It's hard to recall now what a boon that show's blend of costume drama, ethnic inclusivity and unbridled rumpy-pumpy proved during lockdown. 'It gave everyone a hopeful escapism, which we needed so badly at the time,' recalls Bessie. 'And I got one of the few funny, awkward sex scenes in it, which I thought was really important, because not all sex is steamy and romantic.' Being in a long-running TV series was a great technical education, comparable in its way to the six years her mother spent in repertory theatre after leaving Rada in 1976 (though Bessie concedes she had a head start in TV, 'because I grew up visiting film sets and knew what a first AD did, what a runner and a dresser did'). She proved her stage acting ability in the pivotal role of Fenny in Dodie Smith's Dear Octopus at the National last year and will soon be seen in Outrageous, the forthcoming drama about the aristocratic Mitford sisters, who remain a source of perennial fascination to biographers and producers. She'll play writer Nancy alongside Joanna Vanderham as fascist sympathiser Diana, with Anna Chancellor as their mother, Sydney. 'I know a weird amount about Nancy Mitford,' Bessie says. 'I narrated the audiobook of her novel The Pursuit of Love a few years ago; she worked in St Mary's hospital in Paddington, where I was born, and she went to Francis Holland School, which I dipped my toes into for a few years. It's my first lead role. It's a brilliant script by Sarah Williams, and it's a story about six women, all of them totally unique and all of them raised under the same roof. I originally said quite vehemently to my agent that I didn't want to do another period drama, but he said: 'I don't think you're going to want to say no to this one … '' Similarly, Bessie characterises Mrs Warren's Profession as 'a play with two women at the helm in a masculine world – which unfortunately we still do live in – and them not wanting to play by the rules'. In Shaw's 1893 play, Mrs Warren's Cambridge-educated daughter Vivie discovers that her mother is a sex worker turned madame, setting up a debate where sex, marriage and commerce intersect. 'Basically it's about capitalism and it could have been written in the last two years,' Bessie adds. 'It asks how much longer can we all look away before we have to turn and face what's really going on in the underbelly of the world?' The genesis of the show came when Staunton was discussing potential projects with director Dominic Cooke, a trusted collaborator. They'd never worked on a play before but a musical wasn't an option because, as she says without vanity, 'I've done all the big ones'. She graduated from the chorus of Guys and Dolls in the National's groundbreaking production in 1982 – where she and Jim Carter met on the first day of rehearsals – to play Miss Adelaide in the 1996 revival. Thereafter, she steadily knocked off Stephen Sondheim's major works with Sweeney Todd (2012), Gypsy (2014) and Follies (2017). Cooke, who directed her in Follies, finally persuaded her to do Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's light 1964 tale of a turn-of-the century matchmaker, Hello, Dolly!, which she initially dismissed as 'sugary'. Staunton had reservations about Mrs Warren's Profession, too, having played the role of Vivie during her rep days. 'I think at that time I didn't know what it was about,' she says. 'Dominic said read it again. I did and realised that the combination of Dominic – knowing the care he takes – and myself and Bessie might be something interesting.' Acting with her daughter will be another first: 'The Crown and Harry Potter, they're two firsts because there'd never been seven books made into eight films [with the same central cast]. And never on television had you had one long story with three casts playing the same characters.' The Crown was a particular challenge as – following on from Claire Foy and Olivia Colman – she was playing the version of the queen that contemporary viewers knew best. 'That body, that shape, that hair…' she says. 'Plus I think it was hard for audiences to accept a new queen if they'd been fond of the previous one.' Bessie chips in: 'I found that really exciting as an audience member, seeing the new version.' It was, we agree, like getting a new James Bond, except that the queen was allowed to age. Appearing in a straight play after Hello, Dolly! is something of a relief for Staunton. 'It's odd for me to be in a room where we're not choreographing, but it's great because I don't have to worry about my voice or all that technical side of it,' she says. She and her daughter ran lines together before rehearsals started, either in the family home or at Bessie's flat in Brixton. 'If we'd done that in the first day of rehearsal, looking into each other's eyes, pretending to be another person, that would have been weird,' she says. 'What we have no idea of is what it will be like for an audience watching a mother and daughter playing a mother and daughter. We will be doing things that we have no idea we're doing just because we are genetically connected.' Both Staunton and Jim Carter were in BBC One's Cranford when a teenage Bessie won a part in it as a maid in 2007-8, but none of them shared scenes together. And Staunton and her husband haven't acted opposite each other since that fateful meeting in Guys and Dolls. In the past she's said they avoided working together 'so you bring home different things'. They have also famously rarely spent more than two weeks apart for work. Couldn't she and Bessie have found a part for him in the Shaw play? 'Wouldn't happen,' grimaces Staunton. 'Try as you might, he's had it with theatre. He'd rather be in the garden.' Bessie adds: 'He'd better bloody come and see it, though.' At this point it's probably worth mentioning that Yorkshire-born Carter dropped out of a law degree at the University of Sussex to join a theatre group called the Brighton Combination in 1968, which put him in early plays by Howard Brenton, but also required him to learn circus skills. 'He doesn't unicycle any more, but he can still juggle and he's still got all his magic gear,' says Staunton. 'He still pulls out a card trick or a coin trick now and again,' Bessie adds. In the early years of their marriage, Carter was a more visible face on film and TV than Staunton. I tell her how fondly I remember his role as a French resistance fighter called Déjà Vu ('Haven't I seen you somewhere before, m'sieu?') opposite the late Val Kilmer in the Zucker brothers' 1984 war spoof Top Secret!. 'Jim's first screen kiss was with Val Kilmer,' she says with a rueful smile. Talk turns briefly to mortality. Alan Rickman, who died in 2016, was one of Staunton's contemporaries at Rada and preceded her in the Harry Potter franchise as Severus Snape. 'We weren't close friends but I miss his presence and his kindness,' she says. 'Once 15 of us went to see a show with him and we ended up at [theatre hangout] Joe Allen's. It was long before I was in Harry Potter but he must have started in it because at the end he just got the bill and said' – here she does a terrific impersonation of Rickman's bone-dry drawl – 'Harry Potter's paying.' Bessie, delighted, says that Anna Chancellor recounted a similar story about Rickman during the filming of Outrageous. A larger absence in Staunton's life is Stephen Sondheim, who died aged 91 in 2021. 'He was a great champion of me but he loved all his stars,' she recalls. 'The great thing about him is he would never say: 'When Patti [LuPone, his Broadway muse] did this part…' He would just be in the now and you were the best one on that day. After we did Sweeney Todd in 2012 he insisted I should play Mama Rose in Gypsy in London, but I wasn't famous enough then, and apparently neither was he, which seems inconceivable.' Gypsy did happen at Chichester in 2014 and duly became a smash hit in London. When he died, Bessie gave Staunton a framed photo of Sondheim sitting in their West Hampstead kitchen during rehearsals for Sweeney Todd. At the Olivier awards Staunton paid tribute to her late Irish Catholic mother while accepting the award for best actress in a musical for Hello, Dolly!. 'If I may say something to my late mum, whose name was Bridie McNicholas,' she said. 'Great name, must renew [my] Irish passport. Mum, I'm here at the Albert Hall, I've got a prize, but more importantly, I'm about to do a play with your granddaughter. I wish you were here.' Bridie, a talented singer and musician who ran a hairdressing salon, and her construction worker husband, Joe, emigrated to Archway in north London from County Mayo in the 1950s. Bridie and Joe split up when Staunton was in her late teens but got on well even when they found new partners. Bridie died in 2004, a week before Staunton received news of her Oscar nomination. Carter and Bessie accompanied Staunton to that Oscars ceremony, and they took ham salad sandwiches to eat in the limo on the way. 'We've got our packed lunches for rehearsal today,' says Staunton matter-of-factly. 'You've got to be sustained.' Joe died in 2010. I wonder how he and Bridie would have felt about their daughter being made a dame by King Charles in 2024. 'I don't think they'd have believed it but they'd have been extremely proud,' says Staunton. Bessie says: 'We toasted them on the day.' Has ennoblement changed her mother, I ask Bessie. 'Yeah, dad and I have to bow to her now,' she grins. What's the secret of a long marriage? I ask Staunton. 'I don't think there's one secret but respect, kindness and humour are the secret to ours,' she says. Bessie is now single, having split with her Bridgerton co-star Sam Phillips. 'Everyone always goes, 'Oh, God, you don't want to date an actor.' And I say, but my parents are totally happy and they're both working actors.' They've given her a romantic and a professional pattern for life, proving it's possible to move between film, TV, stage drama and musicals. Bessie lets slip she's been having singing lessons: 'I'd love to be in Guys and Dolls, genuinely.' Would she want to play Miss Adelaide, her mum's old role and the more comic part, or Sarah Brown, the missionary who gets the romantic songs? 'Adelaide, because I like the funny,' she says. 'Do both,' says Staunton. Mrs Warren's Profession is at the Garrick theatre, London, 10 May to 16 August
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With lower raises than planned, Augusta County Schools approves 2025-26 budget
VERONA — The Augusta County School Board approved a $151.9 million balanced budget at its regular business meeting Thursday, March 20. The budget includes a 3% raise for all staff and a 7% raise for bus drivers, both lower than the board had hoped for but necessary to balance the expenses to projected revenue. In a work session before the regular meeting Thursday, Superintendent Eric Bond told board members that they are still waiting for Gov. Glenn Youngkin to approve the budget sent to him by the General Assembly. Bond said in putting together the school budget, staff used projected state revenue from the General Assembly's budget of $91.2 million. That number is based off an average daily membership of 9,500 students in Augusta County. Middle school football to launch in the fall after Augusta County School Board approves program On Monday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made more than 200 budget amendments and vetoed eight budget items. The General Assembly now will take up the governor's vetoes and amendments when it returns to Richmond next week. The revenue for Augusta County Public Schools also includes a projected $53.99 million in local appropriations from the Board of Supervisors. That accounts for approximately 35.5% of the revenues. At the beginning of the night, expenditures exceeded revenue by $3.7 million. During a work session, the cuts to expenditures included numerous items that were on the board's wish list but hadn't yet been implemented. "We tried to touch things we don't have now," Bond told the board. Nourishing Strides 5K, Project Grows youth program and SAW Housing Lunch & Learn: The Digest That included eliminating additional coaching and transportation department stipends and 10 new staffing positions. No cuts will be made to existing staff positions. The board also eliminated a reorganization of the support staff salary scales. Bond said the hope was to make those salaries more competitive, and staff would still like to do that in a future budget. Reducing staff raises from a 4% to 3% raise, and bus driver raises from 15% to 7%, helped reduce expenditures also, enabling the board to pass a balanced budget. The 3% raise equals what Waynesboro Public Schools approved. Staunton has yet to pass its budget, but in a presentation at its March meeting the division is planning a 4% raise for staff with an additional 1% for teachers with 20 or more years of service. More: PD: Western State Hospital employee in Staunton injured in attack, suspect arrested More: Fort Defiance High, Wilson Middle bands recognized as state programs of honor — Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Connect with Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@ and on Instagram @hitepatrick. Subscribe to us at This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta County School Board balances budget with lower raises than planned
