By Matt de Simone
The Botetourt County School Board held this regular meeting in Fincastle last Thursday night less than a month before the first day of school for Botetourt County Public Schools (BCPS) students and staff commences August 8.
Lord Botetourt High School students Nolan Medley and Emma Rice were recognized for their individual honors. Medley was recently announced to the Virginia High School League (VHSL) First Team All-State Baseball Team and will be playing baseball at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Rice is a member of this year’s VSHL First Team All-State Girls Soccer Team and will be playing soccer at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
BCPS Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Russ updated the School Board on the FY25 school budget ($66,511,060).
“In short, when we presented our original budget to the Board of Supervisors, we had a general fund ask of $1.9 (million),” Russ explained. “We also had a Capital Improvements ask. In the end, we were granted $2 million from the board. From that $2 million, that was to include the General Fund and Capital Improvements. It was left up to us to decide how much was going to go where.”
From the $2 million, Russ explained that BCPS has put approximately $1.6 million into the General Operating, with the remainder (approx. $417,000) going into Capital Improvements.
The latest update noted increases in the categories of Instruction (+6.4%), Administration (+6.4%), Transportation (+11.7%), Operations and Maintenance (+13.3%), and Technology (7.1%).
In the next few days, School Board members will meet to possibly “reprioritize” items in the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) including where to use the additional remainder and “see what (it) will move on first.”
Valley District School Board representative Tim Davidick recommended that when reviewing the CIP, the document should “memorialize” what the School Board asks for, what it needs, and what amount it is getting along with the difference, to better see what BCPS “is carrying forward.”
“Right now, all we’ve been doing is kicking the can down the road for 15 years,” Davidick said. “And I think that stops (if we can see where the money is going). I think we need to identify, ‘this is where we’re at,’ and this is like any debt at your house.”
Davidick thinks the “memorialized” document will get some attention if its incorporated with their budget documents located on the BCPS website. Russ noted that any priorities that are changed, if any, will be posted.
Fincastle District representative Dana McCaleb asked Russ to go over examples of items included in the General Operating budget, which includes personnel (85%), instruction, administration, transportation, operations and maintenance, technology, and debt services.
Russ explained that any money that is left over by BCPS is moved into the Capital Reserve fund, which is then used to address maintenance issues at schools, with permission. This money comes from the “efficiencies” in the annual budget, as pointed out by Davidick. The board unanimously approved the budget update.
The superintendent gave his monthly report mentioning that the budget and finance departments are continuing working on the year-end processes and monitoring the FY24 expenditures and revenues. The department is also working with bookkeepers while preparing the annual School Activity Fund Audit.
Additionally, Russ shared that the human resources department conducted background checks and onboarding paperwork for new employees for the 2024-25 school year. A current list of job openings is available on the division website at https://bcpsva.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx.
The maintenance department is currently working at James River High School, Eagle Rock Elementary, and Botetourt Technical Education Center (BTEC) on various projects that include roof repairs, asbestos testing, and sidewalk repairs, respectively.
Russ noted that due to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent executive order on July 9 calling for policies restricting cellphone use in K-12 schools, BCPS is awaiting the guidelines from the Virginia Department of Education for implementation by January 5.
“We’ll look at other school divisions’ cellphone policies to see what parts or pieces we want to adopt, but we will have an updated cellphone policy,” Russ said. “At this time, we’re waiting on guidance from the Virginia Department of Ed(ucation) before I’m going to propose any draft but we will have ours in place well before the (January 5) deadline.”
