The speakers who came out Monday night to participate in the Spotsylvania County School Board public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget were cautiously optimistic.
They’re eager to see if Superintendent Clint Mitchell’s incremental approach will lead to better results in terms of local funding from the county’s board of supervisors.
The school division was left with a shortfall of more than $46 million last budget season.
“Hopefully this year, the vicious cycle is going to be broken,” said Lisa Ehmer, a paraeducator at Lee Hill Elementary School. “Usually, we identify the need, we request the money to remedy the need and then we are denied. I really hope that this year that pattern is broken.”
Mitchell is requesting that the school board agree to propose a $499 million budget to the board of supervisors, which is $58.6 million more than the $440.4 million received last year.
But the shortfall in local funding is $20.9 million, much less than last year’s gap. Mitchell hopes that by asking for less than what is required this year, schools will be fully funded within three years. He said County Administrator Ed Petrovich indicated he will ask the supervisors to fund $15.5 million of the shortfall this budget cycle.
Melissa Brace, president of the Spotsylvania Education Association, said Mitchell’s budget proposal will help the county close the gap in teacher pay with its neighbors to the north, particularly Stafford County.
“I’m here to speak in favor of Dr. Mitchell’s proposed workforce investments,” Brace said. “Competitive salaries and benefits reflect the need for highly-skilled professionals. The superintendent’s budget reflects this priority, and we urge the school board to include the increase in your final budget request to the board of supervisors.”
Jared Stueber, an instructional technology aide at Spotsylvania Middle School, expressed disappointment that his position is paid $24,000 per year. Stueber said that salary equals approximately $1,500 per month for those without employer-provided health insurance, and even less for those with insurance.
“The average rent for a one-bedroom is $1,570,” Stueber said. “My paycheck cannot cover rent, let alone other expenses … Making ITAs 12-month employees without an increase in pay means more work for little reward. We manage over a thousand devices, oversee repairs, software, networks in some cases, and electronic device enrollments all while serving as role models to children. These responsibilities deserve better compensation.”
There’s no lack of compensation for a handful of new positions that drew scrutiny from Lee Hill District representative Lisa Phelps. Phelps told the Free Press that she is concerned that the proposed budget includes multiple positions requiring salaries at or above $200,000 per year.
Mitchell is the highest-paid employee in the school division at $250,000 per year. But the budget also includes an executive director of student services and post-secondary success and an executive director of middle school/elementary school at $223,784 apiece.
The budget proposal also calls for an internal investigator ($118,205), a paralegal ($106,363) and in-house division counsel ($222,186), positions Mitchell said will lead to future cost savings in legal fees.
Also included in the proposed budget is a human resources director focused on staffing for special education/English for Speakers of Other Languages at $199,954 and an assistant director of professional development and federal programs at $189,561.
Overall, the budget calls for eight new positions under “compliance adjustments and organizational improvements” ranging in salary from $106,363 to $223,784 and totaling $1.4 million. Mitchell said some of the “asks” are to promote organizational efficiency, while others are based on community survey results.
The next step in the budget process is a Feb. 10 budget work session, to be held on the same night as a regular meeting. The board will approve the budget and Capital Improvement Plan at a Feb. 17 special meeting.
In other business Monday, the board went into closed session and approved a personnel packet by a 5-1 vote. Phelps said she voted against the packet because “there were personnel on there that I don’t believe should be working in our school division.”
