Charles City School Board adopts $9 million budget for FY2016-17

Charles City School Board members adopted a $9,002,390 operating budget for FY2016-17 during their May 17 regularly scheduled meeting.

Board members had been convening in numerous meetings since county supervisors announced their budget for the upcoming year. Schools had asked county leaders for a $400,000 increase for the upcoming cycle, but only received $168,253 which is equivalent to the amount of money in reduced state funding.

Members returned to the table on May 5 during a budget work session and received information on areas for making up a $231,747 shortfall. To compensate for the deficit, school board members elected for the elimination of 2.7 proposed instructional positions ($123,230), a substitute provision ($40,000), a revised teaching aide proposed scale ($29,755), benefits related to salary reduction ($53,608), and the tuition assistance program ($35,750). An increase of $50,596 is expected in health insurance to balance the shortfall.

School leaders were able to provide raises for employees. Teachers will receive a one percent raise plus step increase, while the hourly rate will be $9.72 for other workers. Teacher aides will receive additional hours in the work year and school staff workers are recommending a raise to $8 or more for FY17-18.

But while most workers will receive the salary increase, at least two board members expressed concern about not including central office staff as part of the group.

“My concern is that this will become a dilemma that we can’t accommodate this increase for our central office staff,” said at-large member Steve Fuhrmann. “I don’t want to lose the momentum we have with this staff. They have been doing exceptional work, especially streamlining this budget for 2017.”

“How can you deny a raise to staff and not think they would lose momentum?” said District 3 representative Martha Harris, addressing a comment made by county supervisor Floyd Miles Sr. who voiced concerns that additional funds would be applied to raises for central office staff. “When you hire a person, they will expect growth.

“I think it’s unfair to these workers and we may have problems down the road hiring additional staff,” she concluded.

Schools also saw a reduction in the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) for next fiscal year. Schools requested more than $1 million in projects, but received $497,028. The CIP is not included as part of the operating budget.

Projects approved include the one-to-one technology initiative ($298,700), vehicles for transportation ($135,000), installation of HVAC units in Charles City Elementary School’s cafeteria ($29,840), and replacing 18 water source heatpump units ($33,488).

After the meeting, superintendent of schools David Gaston praised the hard work by school board members during the budget season.

“This board was thoughtful and they focused on keeping the people first,” he said, pointing to the emphasis on providing monetary increases. “In the end, they voted with their conscience.

“This board continues to do a lot with the little increase,” Gaston continued. “We have had a lot of meetings and they took the leadership role and I am grateful for that.”