Dear Colleagues:

This represents the first in a series of regular updates on the status of our proposed budget.

I presented my funding request to our School Board on January 19, and the Board held budget work sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings last week. There will be a third work session tomorrow night, and then on Thursday, our Board will conduct their public hearing on the proposed budget. Please join Matt Haas, Lorna Gerome, and me in one of seven funding request chat room sessions this Wednesday, Feb. 3.

My presentation to the Board was titled, Empowering America’s Future: Imagine. Invest. Exceed. These concepts best express the strong link between the prosperity of our community and the quality of our public education system. Education at its best expands the boundaries of exploration, discovery, and human development. By advocating for the resources that fit these goals, we indeed can transform our highest aspirations into lifelong accomplishments for all of our students.

What you should know about the proposed budget:

• At $174 million, it increases expenditures by 4.2 percent, while revenues are projected to increase by 3.3 percent. Compared to prior years, when our funding deficit at this point in time approached as much as $7 million, the current gap in the proposed budget is relatively modest at $1.5 million.
• Most of the increases are for directed or mandated costs; new initiatives account for less than 1 percent of the proposed budget.
• It places a premium on our greatest competitive advantage—our employees. It includes a full-year compensation increase that averages two percent. Despite substantial increases in premium costs, it maintains a highly competitive healthcare benefit. Also, it restores $500,000 to our professional development programs.
• While the increase in student enrollment will be slower than in recent years, our overall enrollment trajectory continues its upward trend. Next year, growth expenses include more than $500,000 in special education programs and $430,000 for modular classrooms to address the capacity issue at Albemarle High School.
• The impact of substantial cuts in state revenue over several years continues to weigh down our ability to expand long-term investments in education. While we are projecting a $2.9 million increase in state revenue next year, the state will be funding 28 percent of our per pupil costs, compared to 32 percent just prior to the recession.
• School Board Chair Kate Acuff and I recently appeared on WINA to discuss the budget proposal. We shared that, although this funding request does have a gap, we believe the request represents the needs of our learners and the educators who serve them so well.

Important upcoming dates include the February 4 School Board public hearing; February 19, when County Executive Tom Foley presents his proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors (BOS); a February 23 BOS public hearing on that proposal; the BOS meeting on March 8 to set the advertised property tax rate for next year; and March 30 for the public hearing on local government’s operating and capital budgets.

These are important opportunities for the community to influence our future quality of education. There is risk in believing that with a relatively modest funding gap, not much is at stake. In fact, public hearings are momentous discussions about what we as a community most value, and on that subject, it is important for as many voices as possible to be heard.

Thank you,

Pam Moran
Superintendent