Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for your patience with our school closings due to winter weather. I know that the resulting disruption of learning can be frustrating when we lose momentum in our schools due to inclement weather. Fortunately, spring is just around the corner and temperatures this week are forecast to rise dramatically. When daffodils bloom and flowering trees spring back to life in March, we know that we are in one of the loveliest communities to be found anywhere.

I would like to share an update on the current status of the 2015-16 budget process. Each year, our School Board reiterates that their funding request to the Board of Supervisors must affirm our vision for learners and learning. Our county has several important unmet needs and the Board of Supervisors has advertised a tax rate that could bring in the resources to begin meeting them. Education is among those needs; it continues to offer the highest return on investment for our community. Investing in employees is essential to educational excellence. Thus, the School Board continues to look for ways to extend competitive compensation beyond a half-year raise to support recruitment and retention. This was the subject of recent discussions at a School Board meeting as well as with the Board of Supervisors when Chair Gallaway and Vice-Chair Acuff presented the school request to them.

At their March 3 work session, the Board of Supervisors voted to advertise a real property tax rate of 82.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, which if approved, would represent an increase of 2.5 cents over the current rate of 79.9 cents. This tax rate increase would bring an additional $4 million to local government. On average, it would add less than $70 a year to the tax bill for homeowners who live in a house assessed at $250,000 a year according to local government staff calculations.

As the county executive noted in his budget message, the current property tax bill in Albemarle is roughly equal to what homeowners paid in 2009. Our tax rate, he added, is among the lowest of the top 20 most populous counties in the state.

That last fact is a remarkable tribute to our educators and the breadth of our program offerings when taken in context with the recent finding by Niche, a national organization that evaluates school divisions across the nation. Despite our relatively low per pupil expenses compared to the top four divisions, we ranked fifth out of 134 school divisions in Virginia.

Supervisors will not adopt the actual tax rate for 2015-16 until April 14. Until then, Supervisors have said they want their constituents to have the opportunity to comment on the advertised tax rate and on those public needs and services they most value. A schedule of nine town hall meetings by Supervisors, in many cases with School Board members, also is attached in this email.

On Wednesday, April 1, the Board of Supervisors will conduct a public hearing on the proposed operating and capital budgets for local government and the school division. On Wednesday, April 8, the Board will conduct a public hearing on the advertised tax rate. And, on Tuesday, April 14, the Board of Supervisors will approve a tax rate and operating and capital budgets.

Over the past several years, we have had to scale back investments in employee compensation and professional development. The school division funding request sent to the Board of Supervisors by the School Board has a funding gap of $880,000. Fully funded, our 2015-16 funding request supports three basic but vital goals—moving towards compensation levels that employees deserve—funding student enrollment growth—and maintaining high quality services for students.

Sincerely,

Pam

Pam Moran
Superintendent