School board dives back into budget

The board started the week with a Feb. 6 workshop that gave them an updated overview of the budget from Debbie Halloway, assistant superintendent of finance, who provided updated figures. However, as with the first presentation, she stressed again the numbers are still likely to change as more information comes in about expected revenues from the county and the state.

The board also spent the bulk of Wednesday, Feb. 8 going deeper into line items currently included in the budget as well as requests that have not yet been added.

On Monday, Halloway presented what she said was a more realistic initial budget for the school division for FY 2024 with a projected budget of $60,089,010. This is an increase from the initial budget presentation on Jan. 10, when the projection was $59.03 million.

The new figure brings the projected budget up more than $4.8 million over the FY2023 adopted budget. This means a projected 8% increase instead of the 6% offered in January.

Superintendent Beth Teigen reminded the board and the community that the budget is a fluid process, especially this early in the process as the school board is only starting its in-depth analysis, the division is waiting for the General Assembly and the school board still needs to discuss the budget with the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors. The school division was also waiting on an updated calculation tool from the Virginia Department of Education.

“While there are some updates from the last time, I don’t anticipate this being the last updates we will see,” Teigen said.

The increased figures project the local county transfer at $2.08 million more than the FY2023 adopted; a state increase of $1.1 million; and $372,649 more in federal dollars, among other resources, Halloway said.

During the presentation, Halloway offered several pie charts that break down the general categories of where expected expenditures are for FY2024. For instance, in a more than $60 million budget, the expenditures by appropriation would be: instruction (69.72%), transportation (8.86%), operations and maintenance (8.04%), technology (4.36%), food service (3.61%), administration (2.89%), attendance and health (2.14%) and facilities (0.39%).

The purpose of the charts, she said, was to show the board and the community where the majority of the school division’s money is spent and that “there is not a lot of flexibility,” she said.

“We thought it was important to show where our priorities are, which is our staff and instruction,” she said.

The chart shows “instruction is our largest expenditure, which it should be,” she said.

Halloway said after the meeting that the conservative budget presented in January didn’t account for initiatives they knew would be up for consideration as well as inflation issues.

As Halloway, who was hired last fall, started going deeper into the budget, she realized the number also didn’t fully capture existing expenses, such as summer school.

The new number is “really a number to help us get where we needed to be to cover what we already have. That doesn’t cover any new initiatives,” she said.

As of the Jan. 6 meeting, Halloway pointed out the budget as it stood currently had $382,487 in unallocated funds but the school board would be receiving requests from department heads totaling $953, 123. She added that Teigen and administrative staff had prioritized the list, which includes requests for positions, programs, materials, stipends, and more, and “we will have to cut a lot of this.”

During the Feb. 8 workshop, the school board started the meeting with the four board members present stating their priorities. Valarie Ayers, who represents District 3, was not present.

Vicki Hurt, District 1, voiced her support for focusing on learning loss, continued small class sizes, more detailed dyslexia screening, filling bus driver openings and evaluating increased legal costs with a look at possibly hiring a staff attorney.

James Taylor, District 4, praised the school district for having a much better per pupil cost as compared to the state and some other divisions. While he is looking where cuts need to be made, he wants to “make sure that each teacher and each department has everything they need to make sure that we continue to have a high level of education and we’re operating at the optimal level.”

Kim Hymel, District 5, said her usual requests are for raises for teachers and employees and instructional assistants for kindergarten teachers. She said she was looking forward to hearing the requests from the schools to see how they can accommodate them.

Before the deep dive started, Teigen said the budget objectives include: attracting and retaining highly qualified staff by offering them a competitive compensation package; providing adequate funding and resources for schools to meet the individual needs of students; maintaining small class sizes; and ensuring PCPS schools and offices are healthy and safe places to learn and work.

She added she looks forward to working with interim county administrator Bret Schardein “to continue to find ways to unify the county and the schools.”

“We are all part of one family and we all work collectively to make Powhatan County the best community to live, work and play in,” she said.

The board spent the day on Feb. 8 meeting with staff to discuss the elementary, middle and high school budgets and line items; division level instruction and instructional technology budgets and line items; and technology budgets and line items.

The next in-depth budget workshop is scheduled for 9 a.m. today, Feb. 15 at the Pocahontas Landmark Center.