New Kent School Board approves $49 million budget for FY2025-26; hopes for more funds from NKBOS

While New Kent School Board approved its FY2025-26 budget Monday night, they are hopeful for more funding to support positions of needs.

School board members voted unanimously 5-0 to approve a budget of $49,036,526 for the upcoming year. However, that amount is $450,000 less than what the school requested from the county.

With the proposed shortfall, Director of Finance Haynie Morgheim presented recommendations that were removed from the budget to cover the amount. Among them include eliminating proposed positions of a high school assistant principal ($106,617), a special education administrative position ($169,943), gifted teacher ($75,982), a reduction in projected healthcare ($99,372), modifying a maintenance technician position to a mid-year hire ($23,176), and reduction in custodial expenses for Bridging Communities Career and Technical Center ($14,724). To balance the budget, additions were made to fully reinstate a paraprofessional position ($29,526) and increase the contingency balance by $10,288.

Despite the cuts, the approved budget keeps a one-percent salary adjustment for teachers, and the hires for a STEAM teacher at George Watkins Elementary, a secondary school teacher, a VPI teacher, a bus driver, and an automobile driver.

Even with the approval, New Kent Superintendent of Schools Brian Nichols encouraged others to advocate for more money for the school.

“This budget worries me to a degree,” he said, pointing to the positions that were lost in the proposal and the continuing expecting growth of the school system, which is projected to have an average daily membership (ADM) of 3,500 students. “We are still pushing the county for more sources.”

While the school will not adopt the budget until they receive final numbers from Governor Glenn Youngkin’s budget, District 4 representative Roy Vaught elected to comment on the need for funding.

“It is incumbent that [school] board members advocate for the $450,000,” he said. “The cuts being made are big cuts.

“We must continue to advocate for the full budget,” Vaught added. “When we look at teacher retention, classroom size plays a part. This is not just funny money in the side pocket; it’s essential funding that goes into the classroom.”