Charles City School Board approves $10.8 million budget for FY2023-24 cycle

Charles City County’s School Board approved its proposed budget for the FY2023-24 school year.

School board members voted 4-0 (with District 1 representative Joy Harris absent) in favor of a $10,805,970 operating budget proposed by Superintendent of Schools Dalphine Joppy at Tuesday night’s regular meeting. In total with the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the budget comes in at $14,252,626.

At a Mar. 14 public hearing, Joppy commented that the budget is based on a projected Average Daily Membership (ADM) of 524 students. Among top priorities in the budget include a five-percent pay raise for employees, the hiring of an assistant principal, adding a math interventionist, a high school special education teacher, and instructional aides at both the elementary school and pre-kindergarten level.

The CIP totals $1,290,857, with most of that money coming from the ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) grant. Approximately $1,080,660 will be used to replace the wastewater treatment plant. Other top CIP projects include the purchase of a school bus, a seven-passenger van, and a high jump landing pit for the track facility.

Of the $10.8 million operating fund, the school is asking for a local contribution of $6,502,486 from the county. That amount is a current increase of $886,034 from this year’s local contribution of $5,616,451.

The school’s budget will be presented to county leaders at the Mar. 28 Charles City Board of Supervisors’ meeting.