By Heather Michon
Correspondent
School officials brought more questions than answers to Wednesday night’s Board of Supervisors meeting (Dec. 3), outlining a budget picture that remains largely uncertain without key information from the state.
Superintendent Peter Gretz, his leadership team, and several School Board members walked supervisors through the pressures that are already taking shape for the FY27 budget, which the School Board will finalize and send to the county during budget season in early 2026.
Gretz said the division still lacks two critical pieces of information from Richmond: the governor’s proposed budget and the state’s annual budget template.
Until both are released, he said, the schools cannot calculate projected revenue, determine staffing needs, or estimate how state-level changes might affect local funding.
One loss the division can already count on is the end of roughly $360,000 in “all-in” state funding, a temporary block of money that has helped cover several school-based positions over the past few years.
Gretz said those roles, which include classroom support positions and other instructional or student-service staff, will either have to be cut or moved onto the local budget.
There are also broader staffing pressures taking shape.
In recent years, the School Board has worked to raise teacher salaries and benefits to keep Fluvanna competitive with surrounding divisions. Gretz said that progress has begun to slip, and the division is once again falling toward the bottom of local pay scales, a trend that could make it harder to recruit and retain qualified teachers.
Palmyra School Board representative James Kelley noted that compensation remains a major concern in staff surveys.
“When we survey our community, we survey our staff, salary matters tremendously,” he said. “But it can’t be the deciding factor for all of them because they’re staying. And it’s the lowest.”
He warned that the division risks leaning too heavily on employees’ loyalty and ties to the community if salaries continue to lag behind neighboring divisions.
A recently completed enrollment study adds another layer of urgency. The analysis projects Fluvanna will gain about 400 students over the next five to seven years, with most of that growth expected at the elementary and middle school levels.
Gretz said the high school still has some room to absorb additional students, but the lower grades are already so tight that “I don’t know where we would put 10 kids.”
He and the School Board members agreed that the division will need a full capacity study to determine how, or where, those future students could be accommodated.
Chronic absenteeism emerged as one of the division’s most pressing concerns. School leaders said the rate of students missing large amounts of school time has climbed sharply and now exceeds that of neighboring counties.
The district had previously added extra staff to support attendance interventions, but one of those positions was cut last year due to budget constraints, a move officials now believe set them back.
To regain ground, the division plans to request funds to restore two attendance-focused positions as part of its upcoming carryover request.
Administrators warned that without staff dedicated to tracking and working with chronically absent students and their families, the problem will continue to worsen, especially as cuts to state and federal programs reduce access to services that help keep vulnerable students stable enough to attend school consistently.
Despite the uncertainties, school leaders pointed to some encouraging signs, including steady instructional progress, strong staff commitment, and available space at the high school to help absorb part of the projected enrollment growth.
As the conversation wound down, both boards acknowledged that many of the biggest questions won’t be answered until later this winter. For now, supervisors will have to wait for Richmond to weigh in before the county can begin shaping its side of the FY27 budget.
Nondisclosure agreements
Twice in the past year, supervisors have signed nondisclosure agreements with companies exploring projects in Fluvanna County.
While the agreement with Tenaska has largely expired, the NDA covering Amazon’s proposed warehouse, known publicly only by the code name “Project Hoops,” may remain in effect for another two years, even as construction moves forward.
Supervisors said the prolonged secrecy creates awkward situations when residents ask for information about visible or widely rumored developments.
“I literally stood on the property beside it yesterday with people, and I couldn’t tell them what the sign said at the entrance to the property,” Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) said.
County Attorney Dan Whitten told the board the NDA allows only a narrow, preapproved script. “You can say Amazon,” he said. “You can say the word. We have a specific sentence we can say, but that’s all we can say is that particular script. We can say the word.”
Economic Development Director Jennifer Schmack said the restrictions stem in part from how Virginia handles economic development incentives.
Projects receiving state incentives must remain confidential until the governor makes the formal announcement, and early disclosure can jeopardize those incentives. Companies “can lose all of their incentives,” she said, noting that such losses “have happened in several cases throughout the state.”
Fairchild urged the county to create its own guidelines for future NDAs so boards are not bound by open-ended or overly restrictive terms written by companies.
He said the county should insist on clear time limits and release conditions to avoid situations where supervisors cannot respond to constituents’ questions about projects already underway.
He asked Whitten to draft proposed language, saying the goal was to protect both the current and future boards from being placed in what he described as a subservient position with no clearly defined parameters.
Other matters
Supervisors voted to approve a new reassessment contract with Cowen Services, LLC, at a cost of $6.95 per parcel, or about $120,691 for the 2027 assessment cycle. Staff also briefed the board on imagery options for 2029, including the possibility of using EagleView aerial photography, but no vote was taken on that item.
Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution asking the Virginia Tourism Corporation to recognize Go Virginia Region 9 as its own tourism region, to be designated “Virginia’s Piedmont Region.” Schmack said the change would better reflect how visitors engage with the area and strengthen regional marketing efforts.
Parks and Recreation Director Aaron Spitzer used the first round of public comment to rebut accusations made by Donald and Patti Reynard at previous meetings. Spitzer said the Reynards had incorrectly accused him of election interference during Mr. Reynard’s campaign for Commissioner of the Revenue and misrepresented his interactions with them at senior programs and county events.
