The Botetourt School Board sent a proposed $50.7 million 2018-19 fiscal year (FY19) budget to the Board of Supervisors following a public hearing last Thursday evening in Fincastle.
The board voted 5-0 to approve the budget. No one spoke at the public hearing.
The Board of Supervisors was expected to incorporate the proposed budget in its own FY19 county budget when its full budget committee of the whole met Tuesday afternoon. The supervisors’ budget subcommittee incorporated the proposed school budget in its draft when it met March 15. That draft included a $310,000 increase in local funding for school operations along with another $390,000 to pay the debt service related to the Energy Performance Contract savings. Those savings are guaranteed with the upgrades that have been and are being done in all the county schools since last fall.
While the School Board has a handle on what the Board of Supervisors is willing to provide in the next fiscal year, the proposed school budget is still a “best guess” on what the state will provide because the General Assembly hasn’t finalized a state budget.
The General Assembly’s committee to reconcile differences in a Senate, House and the governor’s budgets could not come to an agreement before the regular session ended in early March. The full body will be back in session beginning April 11 to try to finalize a budget.
Superintendent John Busher told the School Board last Thursday that the administration’s recommendation was to use an average of the three state budgets that were on the table before the General Assembly adjourned. That average would provide about $877,000 more in state funding than the current fiscal year.
The School Board had to present a proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors before April 1 even without a concrete number from the state.
The proposed school budget represents a .9 percent (less than 1 percent) increase in operational costs— up $451,880 total.
The school division’s proposed budget includes a one step adjustment for all teachers and classified personnel that amounts to $563,706; a continuation of corrections for certain employees who did not get step corrections over the past several years that amounts to $281,839, and a 2 percent increase in administrative staff salaries that amounts to $68,624.
The budget also adds a Student Assistance Program (SAP) counselor position rather than having that service contracted out. SAP is a counselor who identifies and assists students experiencing personal stressors that can impede their school performance, and negatively impact their social and emotional well-being.
The budget also adds a speech position, the county’s share of three additional positions at the Jackson River Governor’s School, putting bus drivers on five-hour contracts instead of four hours, an adjustment for employees at the top of the pay scales, an increase in health insurance costs and funds for lease-purchase of five new buses.
The budget also proposes “more of a redistribution of funds” in three areas that are more administrative changes.
One is to no longer bill individual schools by absorbing the $30,000 to $35,000 cost for bus drivers for athletic events. Those savings are intended to be used for equipment replacement.
Changes are being made to individual school expenditures based more on the number of students to provide more equity among the schools.
The three new slots at Jackson River Governor’s School will cost $9,765. With dual enrollment classes through the school, students do not have to pay tuition for those credits like they do at Virginia Western Community College.
The expected budget request to the supervisors does not include other new positions that the administration would like to add for instruction, capital maintenance funding, funding for upgrading playgrounds at various elementary schools, additional technology funds and contingency funds.
