Charles City School Board members dismayed as $7.8 million budget is adopted

Charles City County’s School Board has adopted its budget on FY2026-27, much to the dismay of board members.

School board members voted 4-0 to adopt a budget with local appropriations totaling $7,851,161 for the upcoming cycle, with at-large member Royce Paige absent from the meeting. In total, the overall budget with state funding, federal funding, and other funding brings the total to $15,819,947.

In January, Charles City Superintendent of Schools Katina Otey presented a budget with local appropriations totaling $8,923,281. Among recommendations in that budget included a 10-percent salary increase for staff, five additional hires, new equipment and supplies, and several Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) which included the purchase of a seven-passenger van and additional car for transportation.

But over the past few months, dialogue between school board leaders and Charles City County’s Board of Supervisors seemed to have differing opinions on the amount local schools should receive. Charles City County Administrator Keith Rogers Jr. proposed the $7.8 million figure to county leaders as part of the county’s $48 million total budget. That budget was adopted at the board’s April 28 regular meeting.

Tuesday night’s school board meeting saw Otey return to the school board with more than $1 million in proposed cuts. The superintendent commented that the governor’s budget has not been finalized, but proposals are recommending that a one-time SOQ (Standards of Quality) bonus be awarded instead of a two-percent salary increase. However, not all employees are covered by SOQ, and Otey added that a local match of $100,000 would be required to offer the bonuses. In order to make sure staff is rewarded, she recommended a retention bonus during the fall to be split among staff. Other factors that are affecting the budget include an increase in Medicaid and declining student counts.

Adjustments to the budget also have an impact on projected staff raises. According to Otey, to provide a two-percent staff raise, new positions will no longer be in the upcoming budget, as will several CIP projects. The superintendent says that while the county is reducing their original proposed budget by $1 million, state allocations are also reducing the school’s budget by $340,848. Otey said that even though the county increased funding by $388,472, the total increase is only $30,643 above the current school’s operating budget.

Charles City School Board Chairman Rodney Tyler expressed disappointment in the county leadership’s decision not to fully fund the school needs.

“To know that this is what we need and we’re not getting it is disheartening,” the chairman said as he pointed to the original budget. “We know our areas of struggle.

For at-large member Joy Harris, she believes that the bigger picture is not being taken into consideration when the county adopted their budget.

“When the county reduces the schools, it really does hurt,” she said. “If you’re taking in the loss in state allocations, the only increase we got is $30,000.

“When the public asks why we use more money, it’s because the kids deserve top notch education,” Harris continued. “It doesn’t matter if we have 400 or 1,000 kids, the expectations are still the same.”

After the vote concluded, Harris added that with the governor’s budget not set in stone, the amount of funding at the state level could change and adjustments may be made.