VERONA – Free lunches for all students and a 4% pay raise are both expected this coming school year for Augusta County students, but the Augusta County School Board only has to pay for one of them.
Where's the money going, and what got cut?
Each year, school districts have to wait for the Virginia General Assemble to approve a budget before the district can knows how much money it will get from the state. Currently, the General Assembly budget is part of how the board calculated the projected revenue, totaling $146,347,699.
With expected expenditure totaling $148,408,767, that's an increase of nearly $5.7 million from the year before, about 4%.
The biggest increase is a 4% pay increase is for all employees, except bus drivers. Instead, bus drivers will get an estimated 15% pay increase. These two items account for just under $4.4 million of the increase. Another approximate $377,000 increase comes from the board now paying 100% of employee's health insurance premiums, rather than the previous 50%.
The difference between revenue and expenditure leaves an approximately $1.7 million deficit for the board to make up. Budget cuts were approved alongside the proposed budget.
“I wish that we would get an additional $1.7 million so we could put those items back in, and maybe some other items that we didn’t put in your original budget that staff and I talked about,” said Bond. Several of these cut line items will be considered again next year, according to Bond.
More budget revisions expected
More adjustments are expected after the General Assembly passes and Youngkin signs a budget bill.
Another revision is anticipated with the upcoming Augusta County budget, coming on the heels of an assessment increase. The Augusta County Board of Supervisors will hold a workshop on its budget and the tax rate on March 25.
Bond also warned the board the assessments could have impact on its budget in two years.
“We need to think about what that might mean for less revenue coming into Augusta County from the state because of the increased assessments,” Bond explained.
Despite the increases and cuts, Bond was optimistic about the school-board-approved budget.
“We feel, and staff feels, really good about this budget," said Bond. "The fact that we can maintain our strategic plan for salary increases with the 4% for everyone, I think that’s really advantageous for us.”
The budget was approved unanimously. The presented 2024-2025 budget is available online. The meeting is available on the Augusta County Schools Facebook page.
Free lunches for all students next year
Parents won’t have to worry about paying for school lunches.
The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture lowered the requirements for free and reduced lunch, dropping qualifying measure of poverty scores from 40% to 25%. Augusta County now qualifies for the Community Eligibility Provision, which will provide free breakfast and lunch to all Augusta County students next year.
Lotts confirmed this during the school board’s budget meeting. Boardmember Sharon Griffin (North River District) emphasized, “It’s not this board and our local taxpayers and our local funding paying for this, this is a federal government program.”
“Theoretically, 75% of our kids could afford meals, but the taxpayer gets to pay for it,” said Griffin.
In the most recent complete school year, 2022-2023, the school nutrition program served 886,656 student lunches, 812,545 student breakfasts, and 19,100 adult meals. The school nutrition program provided food to 18 of the county’s 19 schools. This year, the program is expanding into the final school.
The proposed 2024-2025 nutrition program is up by 8.4% from the year before, totaling over $7.3 million.
This year’s budget updated to reflect actual numbers
Similar to what the school board did above for the 2024-2025 budget, the 2023-2024 operating budget was adopted on March 16, 2023.
On March 21, the board also enacted budget revisions on the current budget, changing from expected expenses and incomes to what was spent and what money the school system received.
According to the 2023-2024 revised budget summary, which is available online, the revision increased the 2023-2024 budget by nearly $4 million dollars, from $138,907,034 to $142,726,172. The variation is a balanced budget, but with a 2.7% increase from what was expected.
Where did the extra funds come from?
- First, the school had 82 more students than expected and American Rescue Plan funds are still coming out, resulting in about $500,00 more federal funds.
- Second, the state gave the district approximately $2.5 million for the ALL In Virginia initiative, a program aimed at expanding tutoring services and literacy and combatting chronic absenteeism.
- Third, like the 2024-2025 budget, the board adopted the budget before Virginia adopted that year’s budget, and expected changes produced about another $500,000.
- Finally, other local funding, such as reimbursements from other school districts, account for around $200,000.
Where did the increase in expenses come from?
- Supplies Virginia All-In grant program cost just under $1.6 million, the biggest change.
- Contract services increased by $831,675. These services include about $360,000 for special education and about $150,000 for maintenance.
- Approximately $625,000 went to the school’s “commitment” to Augusta County’s broadband program, hoping to increase internet access for the students and their families. According to Lotts, the school board committed $2.5 million to the grant program, a tactic the county then used to increase its chances of receiving the grant.
- Ten new staff members and wage increases pushed compensation up by $348,372.
- More substitute teachers mean the county spent just over $300,000 more for their services.
After a question about the broadband commitment, Executive Director of Business and Finance Mark Lotts explained, “If the county had support from the local school division, it counted as so many points in the grant application. The county was awarded the grant. In the grant application, we were penciled in to commit $2.5 million. We, of course, did not have $2.5 million after the grant was awarded to the county. We worked with county finance and county administration to allow us to make installment payments with 0% interest over four years. This $625,000 budget revision represents year one of a four-year commitment.”
The revised budget was approved unanimously.
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