At its Feb. 22 special meeting, the School Board approved a $913.7 million balanced operating budget for FY 2025. The approved budget mirrors the proposed budget presented by Superintendent Mervin B. Daugherty. In the superintendent’s proposed budget, he identified $17.4 million in unfunded priorities that should be considered if more funding becomes available. After receiving public input, the School Board included additional priorities on this unfunded list including
- $4.5 million for annual substitutes
- $1 million for additional school counselors (to eliminate shared counselors at elementary schools)
- $684,000 for bilingual liaisons in nine additional schools
The school system’s budget reflects a commitment to continued educational excellence and addresses three sets of priorities:
- Compensation and required increases: Providing a 4% salary increase to employees and allowing for increased costs for services and state-mandated increases
- Maintaining service levels: Continuing the quality education and support services our community values
- Additional needs: Addressing other needed items for schools based on final state revenue numbers
- See all of the budget materials presented at the Feb. 22 School Board meeting.
Through this video message, Dr. Daugherty encourages families and staff to advocate for state funding for schools by reaching out to state legislators. It is imperative to let them know that more state funding is needed. Find out who your legislators are by clicking here.
Now that the School Board has approved a budget, it will be sent to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. They will go through a process that is similar to the process for schools: County Administrator Joe Casey will present the Board of Supervisors with a proposed budget on March 13. Then, community town hall meetings will be held, and the Board of Supervisors will approve a county budget on April 10. This budget includes funding for schools.
Even when this work is complete, the county budget and schools budget cannot be finalized until the state passes its budget. This should happen before July 1, 2024.
Budget documents and details about the budget process are available online.