When Riverview Elementary School in Spotsylvania County initially required a new HVAC, estimates for the unit came in at $650,000.
“Three years later, when we had the funding for it, it cost $1.7 million,” said Rusty Davis, the school division’s supervisor of maintenance. “It was the exact same system.”
Davis and other school officials told the board of supervisors during a joint budget work session Tuesday night that years of deferred maintenance are catching up to the county and taking a toll on school buildings, which average 39 years of age.
Officials noted that more than $70 million is required to renovate Spotsylvania Middle School and that Chancellor Middle and Chancellor High will require $20 million in upgrades to fix mechanical, plumbing, and electrical issues.
“Some of the maintenance has been deferred in these school buildings,” School Board Chair Lorita Daniels said. “We really need to prioritize them and systematically address them.”
The school board and board of supervisors met to discuss a $46.7 million gap in local funding. County administrator Ed Petrovich’s proposed budget included $379.8 million to schools, 46% of the county’s overall $825.1 million budget.
By contrast, neighboring Stafford County is proposing allocating 62% of its overall budget to schools. Spotsylvania school officials say Petrovich’s slight increase in monies from a year ago is disheartening and hope the board of supervisors sees the need for additional funding.
“I welcome a new spirit of cooperation between the two boards,” Daniels said. “I hope that this new cooperation will lead us to a process that will not only get us back to the historic funding efforts provided by the county but also ensure our schools never end up in this position we find ourselves in with the fiscal year 2025 budget.”
In Daniels’ presentation to the supervisors, she noted that $5.5 million of the gap is in special education services; $4 million is in maintenance and utilities and $3.9 million is in health insurance for employees.
The school system is also seeking to better serve economically disadvantaged students and English learners, as well as making operational Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds from the pandemic that won’t be available going forward.
While the county’s student population has remained about the same in the past 10 years (23,838 to 24,033), English learners have increased from 1,094 to 3,239; the number of economically disadvantaged students increased from 9,154 to 12,489; and students with disabilities went up 5% from 2,683 to 3,725.
All of those groups require additional funding.
Daniels said that if the supervisors support Petrovich’s proposal, 85% of the budget will go to wages and benefits for employees.
“Factor in things like utilities, insurance, software support and required purchased services, less than 5% of our budget can even be considered,” Daniels said. “This means without additional support, balancing our budget will require a reduction in positions.”
Salem District supervisor Deborah Frazier, who is the principal at Chancellor Middle, asked the school officials how the funding gap would directly affect the division.
Interim Superintendent Kelly Guempel said the impact would be drastic.
Guempel said 18 schools in the county are facing accreditation issues. He said that when he was principal of Spotsylvania High School, he visited homes of children with truancy problems because there were not enough counselors or social workers employed by the division.
“It’s going to impact every one of our kids at every level,” Guempel said of the funding gap. “We’re currently dealing with accreditation issues that we’re battling as best we can. We have a national teacher shortage, where we’ve lost ground the last two years. We’re not able to hire fully endorsed teachers.
“We’re losing the battle with the school divisions north of us as people can leave our county and make $8,000 to $15,000 more a year just by driving a few miles up the road. We’re getting close to the point where we’re going to be losing to the counties south of us.”
Frazier was taken aback when School Board Vice Chair Nicole Cole said the education Spotsylvania students are currently receiving is “substandard.”
Cole said the county’s goal should be to graduate educated and skilled individuals who will work and raise families in the county and become a benefit to the tax base.
“The situation at this point is dire because the ability to deliver a standard of quality education is compromised at this point,” Cole said.
Each supervisor expressed a willingness to work with the school board, but most did not tip their hand regarding a willingness to increase funding from the county administrator’s budget. Battlefield District supervisor Chris Yakabouski noted that the county transfer to schools in 2012 was $114.8 million. He said that Petrovich’s $152 million transfer is $2 million short of that mark when adjusted for inflation.
“So, these numbers have not kept up,” Yakabouski said. “If we just did that portion, [this gap] would be a lot less.”
The supervisors will hold budget and Capital Improvement Plan work sessions March 4 and March 26 ahead of a March 28 public hearing at Courtland High School on the budget, tax rate and CIP. Final tax rate and budget decisions are set for April 9.
