BY HEATHER MICHON
CORRESPONDENT
The school budget took center stage at a budget work session held by the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday (March 5), with a discussion focused on the School Board’s request for an additional $1.9 million over last year’s local funding request.
Of that request, just over $1 million would go to salaries, with the remainder going to rising health insurance costs and a small number of new executive positions.
Supervisor Tim Hodge (Palmyra) said that he knew there was an argument that the schools’ needs should be fully funded, but told Superintendent Peter Gretz, “I went back and listened to your budget work session, and it didn’t sound like it was all needs. It sounded like $1.8 [million] was what you need, what you’d like, and some extras.”
“Those weren’t my terms,” said Gretz. “Which things that I presented did you think we didn’t need?”
“That’s not my place to determine,” said Hodge.
“Well, I mean…our determination is that we need it.”
Hodge clarified that he was speaking not about Gretz’s budget presentation but about the School Board’s debate over the final budget package in February. Members initially differed widely on how to approach the final budget request before reaching a consensus. The final vote was 3-1, with one absent.
In particular, Hodge questioned some of the requested staff increases, asking, “if you’ve survived this year, can you go another year without them?”
His concerns were based on the high tax reassessments received last month, which he argued would mean that if the budget were fully funded, the people with the smallest homes would see the highest tax increases. The elderly and the impoverished might see the most significant impact.
“I don’t want to do your job for you,” he said. “I just want to figure out is there a way we can come in below $1.8 [million] without crippling you guys.”
Gretz said he did not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of the School Board. He presented his budget to the School Board, which decided what parts they wanted to present to the Board of Supervisors. If the supervisors did not approve the requested funding, he would return to the School Board, “and it will ultimately be their decision which things they help me fund.”
School Board member James Kelley (Palmyra) said that the core mission is educating children, and part of that mission is to recruit and retain talented teachers and staff.
Later in the discussion, he noted that the current executive staff members fill multiple roles simultaneously. “It’s honestly just absurd,” he said. “No other school division does it like this.”
“We would continue to educate children if you cut our budget because that was what we are here to do, but this represents the needs of a school division who is having the same stressors you as a county are having,” he said. “We will work with whichever numbers you ultimately bring us.”
Supervisor Tony O’Brien (Rivanna) said that the potential loss of federal education dollars and what he saw as the strong possibility of an economic downturn means “we’ll probably be facing a more challenging year next year, which just means if we don’t stay ahead, we’re going to be falling even further behind.”
Hodge said he was trying to drill down and find a compromise where he did not have to hurt the several hundred teachers within the Fluvanna school system or the 29,000 taxpayers within the county.
“We’ve done our part,” said School Board chair Andrew Pullen (Columbia). “You do your part. We’re going to make it work.”
