B is for Budget

In March 2019, the Isle of Wight County School Board approved the proposed budget for 2019-2020.  The budget requested an additional $1,981,047 in local funding when compared to the current year.     

The division has identified required expenditures that will have to be covered as part of the 2019-2020 budget.  Those required expenditures will cost $2,178,901.  They include:

• Teacher raises -$640,923 
• 3 Guidance Counselors -$190,788  
• Shared positions:  Carrollton and Hardy; Smithfield and Windsor High; Windsor Elementary and Georgie Tyler Middle

• Special Education positions (15) -$410,874 
• SSC/Service Solutions (custodial) contract -$116,599 
• Debt service -$15,829
• Gifted tuition (Governor’s Schools) -$13,635 
• PowerSchool (Student Information System)-$16,317 
• Maintenance purchased services -$220,000  
• Emergency Communication System -$58,412
• Technology purchased services -$40,750 
• Electricity -$167,567
• Health insurance -$287,207

IWCS is projected to receive an increase in state funding of $1,510,525. 

The Isle of Wight County Administrator has proposed funding IWCS $948,106.  When combined with the state funding, the total would cover: 

• All Required Expenditures listed above $2,178,901 
• Supplemental pay increases (coaches, sponsors, extra duties) $192,230 
• Support Staff Raises $87,500

 Some of the items not included in proposed funding:

• High School Finance Teacher (provides additional face to face sections of Economics and Personal Finance
• Carrollton Elementary School STEM Teacher (reduces high resource class size)
• Hardy Elementary School STEM Teacher (provides equity with other schools)
• Westside Elementary School STEM Teacher (reduces high resource class size)
• Windsor Elementary Environmental Science Teacher (provides a specialized focus for students)
• Georgie Tyler/Windsor High ISS Teacher  (makes the shared position a whole position for both schools, which will provide a more timely response to discipline matters)
• High School CTE Teacher (the location has not yet been designated; addresses increasing class sizes)
• WHS Math Teacher (reduces class size)
• GTMS 8th Grade Teacher (reduces class size)
• High School--½ Global Logistics Teacher (to begin offering the Global Logistics program/warehousing as part of the Career and Tech Ed redesign in IWCS)
• 2 Technicians for Technology (the number of devices throughout IWCS has increased annually, but the staff to manage those devices has not)
• WHS Instructional Materials $10,200 (funding for Drama, MakerSpace, and Robotics)
• WHS/SHS funding for all sophomores to take the PSAT
• Additional Maintenance Supplies $60,000
• Transportation $245,965 (to reduce “doubled up” runs when drivers are out, and to help with transporting small student teams/groups to events without encumbering a full size bus)
• 5 vans -$150,000
• 2 Part Time bus drivers -$21,160
• Full Time bus driver floater -$20,475
• Cost to move bus driver substitute to $13.50 -$15,380
• Purchased services -$10,000
• Materials and supplies -$28,950

Additional information can be found on the IWCS Budget Page at https://www.iwcs.k12.va.us/apps/pages/budgetplanning

Making Your Voice Heard

The Board of Supervisors will make the final decision on the amount of funding appropriated for the school division.  They don’t “fund” a specific project or position, but they provide the overall funding for IWCS, and the division then decides how to use the funding to support those needs.  They have not eliminated the STEM teachers, for example, but supporting the County Administrator’s proposal would mean IWCS would not receive the funding it needs to add those positions. It will be helpful to keep that in mind when speaking to the BOS about additional funding.  

There are two opportunities to speak on the proposed IWCS budget:

• April 18, 5:00 pm, at the Windsor Town Center, 23361 Courthouse Highway, Windsor, VA 23487 
• This is a regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors with a public comment period around 6:00 pm

• April 25, 6:00 pm, at the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, Courthouse Complex
• This is a Public Hearing on the county administrator’s proposed budget and the Capital Improvement Plan. 
• This will be the last time to provide comments on the budget before it is voted on at the May 9 BOS meeting.

The IWCS Capital Improvement Plan approved by the School Board includes funding for renovating and expanding Hardy Elementary, replacing the Bus Garage, building a new elementary school in the northern end of the county  (when triggered by enrollment increases), and an renovating Westside Elementary.  Information on the IWCS Capital Improvement Plan can be found on the IWCS website at https://www.iwcs.k12.va.us/apps/pages/planning

We hope to see, and hear from you, at these upcoming meetings.  You need to make your voice heard about the budget.  If you can't be there in person, have someone who will be there deliver a letter from you directly to all the supervisors.  They need to fully understand the number of parents, community members, and employees who support the division's budget as presented.  You need to let them know if there are things that should be funded that were not included in the county administrator's budget.  Your voice does matter.  

Thank you for your support of Isle of Wight County Schools

Working Together for a Better Community

The vision for Isle of Wight County Schools is to create a learning environment that enables every child to discover his or her unique gifts and talents. The mission is to enhance and expand on each child’s unique gifts and talents to ensure every child is college, career, and life ready. For this vision and mission to come alive in Isle of Wight County, it requires commitment from the School Board, school leaders, and all school staff. Another important group that may not always be acknowledged is the community.    The community of stakeholders is made up of taxpayers both parents and citizens without children, business partners, and the Board of Supervisors.  The old adage of “It takes a village” has never been more important in these very divisive times. We are fortunate to have two boards that have come together to look out for the interest of Isle of Wight County, first and foremost.  

 

Our future is based on strong economic growth, which is not possible without a strong, viable workforce. The Board of Supervisors (BOS) understands this more than any governing body that I have worked with before. For the budget proposed during my first year, we focused on the condition of our facilities and added line items to ensure infrastructure upgrades and schedules for furniture, playground and bus replacement, as well as cycles for painting and paving at all schools. The BOS funded an increase of $736,000 to meet these very important needs that had been neglected for too long. In year two, our school board and I agreed that we should try to meet the school needs while trying to be fiscally responsible and only ask when funds were needed.  We were able to improve our teachers scale without asking the county for any increase in local dollars. The BOS did fund an additional 2.7 million dollars in the Capital Improvement Budget to replace roofs at Carrsville, Carrollton, and Windsor Elementary school. In addition they agreed to take on the debt service for our new Career and Technical Education project that includes programs such as welding, agricultural sciences on the land lab, building trades, mechatronics, nursing, culinary arts, cosmetology, and global logistics.

This year, with increased enrollment, we met challenges in class size at the high school level that were not expected. Once again the BOS worked cooperatively with our Board to fund additional positions at SHS. The proposed budget for 2018-2019 had requests from several schools that would reduce class size and continue the quality education everyone has come accustomed to.  The request was large--$1,094,000. School Board members met and publicly shared the reasons behind the requests. The number of community members who came out to provide public input was more than I had ever seen.  The speakers were polite and stated their reasons for supporting the budget in a thoughtful and respectful manner.  It was encouraging to see.    The Supervisors came through once again by fully funding the schools operating request.  They also fully funded the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) requests to replace the HVAC at SHS (at a cost of $1.97 million over two years).

In my three years with IWCS, the Board of Supervisors have shown a willingness to work with the School Board to continue, and to even expand, the services provided to our students.  They understand that their investment in the youngest citizens of Isle of Wight County will pay dividends for all stakeholders in the long run.