Staunton's school budget remains unbalanced as officials wait for state revenue figures

STAUNTON — In a nine-minute meeting, the Staunton School Board got to see the most recent update to the school budget Monday night.

Budget Director Brad Wegner presented a proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 to the school board at a called meeting, a week ahead of when the board is scheduled to approve the budget.

The budget, whatever action the board takes next week at its regularly scheduled meeting on March 11, will change once Virginia's General Assembly and Gov. Glenn Youngkin agree on a state budget.

"We are still waiting on the state to provide revenue numbers that would allow us to adequately estimate our revenues and finalize our budget," Wegner told the school board. "Rather than speculate as to amount and the structure of the funding to be provided by the state, we are presenting a budget that is not balanced at this time."

Wegner was able to present an overview Monday of the expenditures in the proposed budget. The proposed expenditures are $42,871,555, a 6% increase over last year. Wegner said the majority of the increases are non-discretionary, ones over which the school division has limited or no control.

Wegner cited some of the non-discretionary increases as health insurance, substitute teacher costs, utilities, transportation costs and retirement contributions.

There is also a proposed 3% pay raise for all school staff effective July 1.

"Teacher and staff compensation is the top budget priority for this board," Wegner said. "And this budget reflects that priority to the extent possible given the uncertainty of state revenues."

Wegner said that proposed raise is lower than what both Waynesboro and Augusta County are proposing.

There is also a proposed increase for hiring a teacher for a student with disabilities and an increase in the school division's stipend budget. Part of the increase is also part of a new sick-leave payoff policy that allows the division to pay retiring staff up to $10,000 at the per diem rate for unused sick days.

"The goal of this is to encourage staff to save their sick days and reduce the amount spent on substitute teachers," Wegner said.

While revenue is "murky" according to Wegner, it does include $17,256,610 from the city based on the operational funding formula approved before last year's budget cycle. That is 40% of the total budget. The state numbers, when finalized, will provide a bulk of the remaining revenue.

"We intend to provide an amended, balanced budget proposal to the school board as soon as Richmond completes its work," Wegner said. "It may go through several iterations depending on how (the Virginia Department of Education) rolls out the budget calculation tools and when the governor signs the final budget legislation into law."

No community members spoke at the public hearing on the budget and no school board members had any questions for Wegner.

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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Staunton Schools present proposed budget to board Monday night