Stafford County School Board member Alyssa Halstead was frustrated.
More frustrated, she said Thursday night, than she’s ever been in the three and a half years that she’s represented the Hartwood District.
The source of her aggravation: working on the county budget for the next fiscal year and trying to get more education funding from the Board of Supervisors.
“Every year, you know that the schools are growing,” Halstead said to supervisors, who were meeting with the School Board. “You know that we are facing more students. You know that our buildings are collapsing one day at a time. It’s not a surprise to anybody. And in terms of these, our staff works like little monkeys in a circle, in a circus, jumping through fiery hoops to get you all of the information you need.
“Over and over and over again, no matter how many times we present it, it’s still never good enough. It’s still not enough information. And it still doesn’t validate and justify for you that our kids are working and learning in untenable environments, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Maybe her impassioned speech worked. At a later meeting Thursday, the supervisors’ chairman and vice chairwoman announced that they wouldn’t vote to cut any school spending this year.
“I’m going to go on the record,” board Vice Chairwoman Tinesha Allen said, “I don’t intend to cut a single dime from the schools.”
Board Chairman Deuntay Diggs echoed that declaration a couple of minutes later.
The rest of the county budget picture, however, remains unclear.
County Administrator Bill Ashton has proposed a $1 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The plan calls to raise the real-estate tax rate by 5 cents, from the current $0.8936 per $100 of assessed value to $0.9436 per $100.
That spending plan includes roughly $175 million for school operating costs, about $5 million more than this year’s level.
The School Board, though, recently approved a $503.1 million education budget for the next fiscal year that projects only $484.8 million in revenue. That leaves a funding gap of $18.3 million that would have to be filled — even with the $5 million boost from Ashton’s plan.
At the same time, county government and school officials don’t yet know how much education funding they’ll be getting from the state in the next fiscal year.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin wanted to amend part of the state budget in a way that would have meant a cut of $4.2 million from Stafford’s state funding as well as impacts to other Fredericksburg-area localities.
The Virginia General Assembly met Wednesday to consider budget amendments and the governor’s vetoes of bills from this year’s legislative session, but the House of Delegates didn’t address the amendment that would affect Stafford, schools Superintendent Daniel Smith said Thursday.
So that means the General Assembly’s budget bill goes back to Youngkin to either sign or veto by May 2. If he vetoes it, the Stafford schools’ funding gap would balloon to $31.1 million, Smith said.
Aquia District Supervisor Monica Gary said that instead of money being invested in education, Youngkin has bragged about Virginia having a budget surplus.
But, said Gary, “It’s not a surplus if your schools are crumbling.”
Some supervisors, and many Stafford residents, also would like for there not to be any real-estate tax rate increase in the budget. But Diggs noted that that would be a difficult place to reach.
In fact, what he said he’s hearing is, it’s “next to impossible.”
The supervisors discussed potentially instituting a revenue-sharing agreement with the schools in future budget years, as well. That would mean committing a set percentage of revenue to the School Board every year.
But neighboring Prince William County is the only Virginia locality that has one of those, Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke said.
Prince William’s agreement calls for 57.23% of general fund revenue to automatically go to its schools each year. Ashton said his staff will examine revenue-sharing as directed.
“I can state that we are committed to looking at other alternatives,” he said.
The supervisors will discuss the budget again April 9.
