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Needs Estimate Includes 7 Percent Pay Increase
Although the budget planning process for Virginia schools is still “in a little bit of a holding pattern,” as noted by Rockbridge County Superintendent Phillip Thompson, the Rockbridge County School Board last week approved a categorical estimate of needs to be presented to the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors.
The School Board is proposing a $36,758,134 budget for 2023-24, which would be up approximately $2 million over the current year’s budget. Of that amount, $17.2 million would come from the locality, which represents about a $1.2 million increase in local funds.
The Rockbridge County Public Schools finance department devised this year’s budget with the hopes of offsetting employee health insurance costs, financing a 7 percent raise for all district employees, and hiring two new alternative education positions at Maury River Middle School.
“We’re often looking for positive things when it comes to the budget …” Thompson had said to the Board. Successful negotiations with the district’s new health care provider, Aetna, is one “positive thing” that has alleviated some pressures for the FY24 budget. This year, Aetna offered a rate increase of 13.5 percent, a small victory compared to 20 percent increases burdened upon some other school districts.
When switching to Aetna, RCPS was also able to negotiate a $250,000 credit, which is only applicable to this year. “We do not get this every year, but we’re going to take it when we can,” Thompson said.
In recent budget discussions, chief business officer Jason Kirby projected a maximum insurance increase of $140,000 for the coming year, taking the $250,000 one-time reduction into account. - The current budget plan for next year includes a 7 percent raise for all district employees.
To build the budget, the district is working with the governor’s budget, since the two houses of the General Assembly have yet to reach a budget agreement.
The governor’s budget, however, does not include funds for any additional pay raises for state employees beyond the 5 percent already slated for next year’s budget in last year’s biennium budget.
“This is working off the governor’s budget with the 7 percent raise, which was not in the governor’s budget,” Thompson told the Board. “We put that in there because we felt like our teachers and staff deserve every bit of that and we’re hopeful that we can get that in the end.”
While pulling off a 7 percent salary increase might place a substantial dent in RCPS funds, the district expects to save about $250,000 in instructional funding through attrition. As the Average Daily Membership of students decreases, so does the need for staff. Some positions will be opening this year due to resignations and retirements, prompting administrators to ask themselves if refilling that position is necessary, Thompson noted.
Thompson and the School Board do feel that finding two qualified individuals to work in the alternative education classroom at MRMS is necessary.
“We’ve had great success with the [program] at Rockbridge County High School, and we feel like if we can continue that success and start those successes a little bit sooner, we might not need quite the alternative ed setting at the high school, and [we can] try to fix those problems a little bit earlier on,” said the superintendent.
Right now, the holdup for filling t hose p ositions i s t he district’s desire to find qualified people that have a special skill set to work with students with those types of needs. Expanding the alternative education program at the middle school will require approximately $140,000, Kirby mentioned in earlier budget discussions. - Each year, creating a viable budget comes as no easy task.
“It is extremely difficult to budget for school in the commonwealth of Virginia. In most years recently, school divisions are asked to create a budget without knowing what funding we will receive from the state. We are required to create a budget in the spring using estimations for when students return in August. We have little idea as the actual number of students we will have when school starts nor how many teachers and staff we may need,” Thompson told The News-Gazette.
“We’ve gotten to where we’re pretty good at it, but it doesn’t make it any less challenging,” he commented at the Board meeting.
The district’s budget is subject to change as they await more guidance from the state, but Thompson feels comfortable with the FY24 budget they are sending to the Board of Supervisors.
