By Sarah Vogelsong
The schools got what Supervisor Floyd Thomas described as a “bite of the elephant” but nowhere near the whole animal they requested in the 2015–16 county budget passed by the Board of Supervisors April 14.
Of the $69,872,009 budget, $12,430,680 will go toward school operations. This number represents $430,680 more than what the schools received last year—but far less than the $1.7 million that the School Board wanted.
The school budget dominated both the work session held immediately before Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting and the regular meeting itself, with the supervisors voicing an unusual level of disagreement with one another over the question of whether they would grant the School Board the extra $200,000 they had requested in March to fund a 2.5 percent salary increase for teachers and support staff. This raise would be in line with the increase county employees will receive starting July 1.
In a compromise solution eventually reached during the regular meeting, the county agreed to allocate the schools an extra $100,000, with the School Board providing the remaining $100,000 out of savings from this year’s school operations budget.
If the School Board is unable to come up with their full $100,000 by July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year, the Board of Supervisors stated that they would revisit the issue at that time.
Western Caroline Supervisor Jeff Black put forth the compromise motion but declined a request by Madison Supervisor Wayne Acors to amend it to guarantee that the county would make up any funds on which the School Board fell short.
School Board Chairman George Spaulding and Vice Chairman Nancy Carson seemed doubtful that the schools would be able to come up with $100,000 in savings.
“We can’t guarantee that,” Spaulding told the supervisors, although he promised, “We’ll do our best.”
All told, the schools are set to receive an additional $600,000 for 2015–16, composed of the county’s allocation of an extra $430,000 and a figure from the state that the county places at $167,000 and the school system at $142,000. An additional $100,000 from school operations budget savings would bring the total up to $700,000.
Other state funds are earmarked for specific programs such as the Virginia Preschool Initiative and cannot be used for ends such as salaries.
State funding for Caroline schools in 2015–16 is less than anticipated due to a 40-student dip in average daily membership, said Deputy Superintendent Rebecca Broaddus. Because ADM drives state calculations for funding, the school system will receive roughly $200,000 less next year from the state than it projected in its budget.
Bowling Green Supervisor Sili described this discrepancy as “a little alarming at this point in time in the budget.”
Spaulding, however, argued that ADM determinations are ultimately “a guessing game,” and stated, “We’re not any happier about this ADM than you are.”
Overall, the Board of Supervisors divided into two apparent camps on the issue Tuesday, with Thomas, Black, and Sili the most hesitant to pledge additional funds to the schools and Chairman Calvin Taylor and Acors expressing a willingness to grant the School Board the extra $200,000. Reedy Church Supervisor Reggie Underwood stayed mostly quiet during discussion.
Sili’s main objection was that the additional school funds would have to be drawn from the county’s cash reserves, which should ideally equal at least 15 percent of the annual budget. According to county administrator Charles Culley, the reserve has hovered around 13 percent and could dip as low as the 12 percent range if the extra $200,000 was granted to the schools.
“We can’t keep doing that,” Sili said.
Taylor, however, disagreed, arguing, “I can’t think of a better reason to go into the cash reserve than for education.”
Although the School Board earlier this year set its highest priority as reforming its confusing and inconsistent salary scale, this focus gave way as budget season progressed to the intention to give teachers and support staff the 2.5 percent increase.
The extra $200,000, Broaddus told the supervisors, would allow the School Board to either give this raise or implement the beginning step of fixing the salary scale, but not both.
“We’re back in the tail-chase,” Sili objected during the work session. “If we do the 2.5 percent … then next year we’re going to be back to, ‘The salary scale isn’t right.’”
“There’s always going to be a need for funding,” Taylor argued. “If it’s not to fix the salary scale, it’s going to be something else. You are never going to pay the bill. So if that’s what you’re trying to do, you’re in the wrong ship.”
Despite a number of angry exchanges and implications from some supervisors that, in this election year, officials were more concerned with politicking than a desire to come to a solution, the supervisors passed the resolution 4–2, with Sili and Underwood dissenting.
Later in the evening, in a rapid flurry of votes, the supervisors unanimously passed the
County budget, tax rates that remain unchanged, and the capital improvements program for 2016–20.
The fate of the school salary increases remains uncertain, although Spaulding in an April 18 phone conversation said, “We’re hoping we can still come up with the money for the raises.”
Before the vote on the extra schools allocation, Sili summed up the general mood of the evening: “A good deal,” he said, “is one both parties don’t like.”