STAFFORD — School officials are ready to make their funding case to the Stafford Board of Supervisors.
This year, the Stafford School Board has unanimously voted to allow Superintendent Scott Kizner to present his proposed 2019-20 budget for Stafford County Public Schools 2019-2020 to the Board of Supervisors, which is responsible, in part, for funding it.
Included in the $308 million budget is an $18 million, a 6.4 percent increase in funding.
A five percent salary increase for all staff and three percent for administrators is one of the largest changes in the budget. The salary increase accounts for $10 million in additional funds. Teachers have been lobbying for an increased pay raise for several years.
“You guys started this for the record,” said Griffis-Widewater School Board member Jamie Decatur.
One of the FY20 budget priorities is to attract, develop, and retain professionals within the school division.
“We want to be competitive, more so than we already are,” said Falmouth District School Board member Sarah Chase.
While all of the School Board members supported the salary increase, Hartwood District member Holly Hazard had some concerns.
“I do believe that compensation is a big part of this budget, but I do truly believe that the quality of life in our buildings is important as well,” Hazard said. “I am very concerned about the elementary schools that are approaching 1,000 students and the additional staff that we are going to need to meet the needs of our kids. This is something we have to address.”
The county’s elementary schools have an average of 745 students enrolled. Two schools, Anne E. Moncure and Winding Creek Elementary, are above capacity. The proposed budget recommends hiring more than 37 new teachers.
Another addition to the budget is a 22.45 percent increase in funding for guidance services including salaries, benefits, and professional development.
Originally Kizner requested 17.6 new counselors to be hired; however, the School Board amended this number to approximately 12 new counselors. The additional staff is intended to help lower the number of students each counselor works with.
The budget also requests $136,000 to equalize nurse and teacher salaries.
“We hope to get the nurses’ scale all the way up to the teachers’ scale,” Chase said.
Funding for the budget comes from a combination of state and county funds. State revenue accounts for 56 percent of the budget which is a 15 percent increase from last year. Enrollment growth has in part impacted the amount of state funds Stafford receives.
Forty-two percent of the budget comes from County Funds, an eight percent increase from the FY19 budget.
The budget will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on March 19. It will be finalized and adopted on April 30.
