WILLIAMSBURG — During a joint school board, board of supervisors, and city council meeting March 14, Williamsburg-James City County Schools proposed a $13.9 Million increase for the FY2026 Operating Budget from the city of Williamsburg and James City County.
According to the FY2025 Budget, approximately 60% of WJCC Schools’ revenue was received from the city and the county, with local appropriations determined by a formula based on enrollment by jurisdiction. For FY25, the city’s share was 10.3% compared to 89.7% for the county.
WJCC Schools said that while enrollment had remained steady at 11,300 students, the needs of those students have grown and shifted. Nearly 35% of currently enrolled students are reported to be classified as economically disadvantaged. More than 3% of the students and their families qualify for support within the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
In addition, from the 2021-22 school year to the current year, the special education population has grown by over 9%. The English Language Learner population has grown by more than 40% at WJCC Schools, now representing 9% of the school’s total population, with students representing 84 different countries and speaking 49 different languages.
Over this same period, the instructional staff has grown by less than 2%. Daniel Keever, the Acting Superintendent of WJCC Schools, said in talks with teachers, they have found it concerning that 45% of the behavioral referrals at the elementary level are for kindergarten students and first graders.
Keever continued that this had led to requests for additional support in WJCC elementary schools.
“In our annual conversations around budget, there is this push and pull between the idea of wants and needs, luxuries and necessities, and frequently we have associated our needs with the investment it would take in order to maintain the excellent services that we provide. The question becomes, what will the community investment be with respect to this operating budget?” Keever said when addressing the principalities before showing the budget presentation.
“Genuinely we would not present [that] to this body if we didn’t believe in the fundamental importance in the things we are requesting,” Keever said of the increase. “Transparently speaking, the true budget of need would have been nearly $21 Million above last year’s request.”
While WJCC Schools does predict an increase in funding from the General Assembly’s budget, as of March 14 the state budget has not been finalized, so the current numbers are based on Gov. Glenn Younkin’s amendments to the 2024-26 state budget.
The Superintendent’s Proposed budget provides background as well as information on the current enrollment at the schools — $3,278,500 came from mandatory expenses including utilities, Language Instruction Education Program (LIEP) teachers, the bus driver pay increase and contractual obligations, among others. The projected LIEP teacher allocation requirements, based on new state guidelines, will require 31.09 teachers based on increased English Language learner enrollment.
School board chair Sarah Ortego and Keever clarified that LIEP teacher allocation differs from an English as a second language class, where students sit with a teacher and learn English. Rather, students are taught throughout the day of instruction in subjects where they need the most help. That need varies from student to student and school to school, and so each teacher is assigned a caseload, something Williamsburg City Council member Barbara Ramsey equated to more like that of a social worker.
Compensation expenses include a state-mandated 3% salary increase for all teachers across the board — $3,900,000 million of a total $10,183,000 in expenditure increases. Other expenses include a health care cost increase of 15% based on a 70/30 split, compensation studies, new teacher training, summer school, stipend requests and contract day changes.
Regarding Market Benchmarking for teachers, a Bolton Partners compensation study revealed that WJCC school’s current teacher scale was below the 50th percentile by 4.6% when compared to peer data. WJCC Schools also said it continues to see vacancies. On the first day of school, it reported being staffed 99.2%, and the number of teachers that enter and leave during the course of the school year has continued to grow. For the current school year, there are currently eight teaching vacancies, with an overall turnover trend of 134 for this year.
Budget requests that were not brought forward included 21 additional Full-Time Equivalent requests, additional stipend requests, contractual changes, and a continuation for two more years of the Bolton Compensation Study that totaled around $9.6 million.
Total expenditure with increases is $16.3 million, with $13.9 million coming from the localities. Based on the general assembly budget, the price for the localities could be brought down to $11.9 million.
“I think the key is 87% of [WJCC’s] budget is on people. Same thing with the county and the city, the bulk of our budget is dedicated to people — they’re the ones who make the organization work so I applauded [WJCC] for taking the approach with the compensation and doing it over several years and I think that’s going to be key,” said Jim Icenhour, chair of the James City County board of supervisors.
“I think [WJCC] did well to identify the changes in the student body population and the demands they require, the extra effort, that’s not unlike the demands we have in the city with the residents and expectations of our residents so understanding that investing in human capital is essential to support the human capital that we’re here to educate it’s not unfounded in my perspective that these requests for additional people and pay and extra dollars to the budget has been presented so hopefully we’ll be able to meet that expectation,” added Douglas Pons, mayor of the city of Williamsburg.
Watch the full meeting here.
The WJCC school board will meet next on March 18 at 6:30 p.m. The Board of Supervisors will meet on April 8 for its regular meeting at 5 p.m., and City Council will meet April 10 at 2 p.m. For more information, please visit the official websites.
