The Williamsburg-James City County School Board has finished up its part of the budget work for next year, but it will be up to the city and county to seal the deal.
The school board approved a $124.4 million proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1, at a special meeting Monday night at the James Blair administrative offices.
At $2.9 million larger, the proposed budget represents a 2.4 percent increase over last year’s document.
The school division’s ultimate funding will be settled in May, when the City of Williamsburg and James City County – WJCC’s two main sources of funding – approve their own budgets. If either municipality does not provide the requested funding to the school district, the school board will have to make changes before adopting the budget in May.
WJCC’s Chief Financial Officer Christina Berta said the finalized state budget — signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week — left the school division with an additional $4,000, which would not noticeably change the proposed budget.
The proposed WJCC budget allocates funds to items identified by Superintendent Steve Constantino as priorities for the school division, particularly raises for division employees and initial funding for a fourth middle school.
It provides nearly $2 million for a step increase – equivalent to an average of a 2.5 percent raise – for most teachers, and an equivalent raise for most division employees. Employees who are already at the top of the division’s pay scale would not receive a raise under the approved budget.
“I think this budget provides for our needs, and I’m pleased it provides additional compensation for our staff, while accommodating the needs of our students,” board member Kyra Cook (City of Williamsburg) said.
The budget also accounts for an anticipated 13 percent increase in the divison’s health insurance costs, which could total an extra $1.3 million. Constantino said the increase was largely due to to an abnormally large number of high-dollar claims last year and costs associated with the Affordable Care Act.
Division administrators have said the costs are unavoidable, changes to WJCC’s health insurance plan offerings and adjusting the employer-employee cost-share would lessen the increase from $1.9 million to $1.3 million.
Constantino said the division would not be altering its PPO insurance system, which allows employee to choose their own physicians.
The additional expenditures would be covered by a combination of cost savings on WJCC’s part and increased contributions from Williamsburg and James City County.
Constantino previously identified about $1.4 million in budget reductions for fiscal year 2016, including decreased fuel and electricity costs and reductions in WJCC’s required contribution to the Virginia Retirement System. Most of the savings – about $1.1 million – comes from attrition, which are lowered costs associated with retirements and staff turnover.
The rest of the extra spending would be covered by a request for an additional $1.8 million from the city and county – the school division’s two primary sources of funding.
The city and county would provide about 64 percent of WJCC’s total revenue under the proposed budget. The county contributed $80.8 million in local dollars and sales taxes for fiscal year 2015, while the city added $8.7 million.
City Manager Jack Tuttle released his proposed budget for the city March 27, which included an additional $152,826 in total funding for the schools. During a press briefing Friday, Tuttle said the document fully met the school division’s financial request for the next fiscal year.
County Administrator Bryan Hill is scheduled to release his proposed budget for the county Wednesday.
The school board also approved WJCC’s capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2016, which covers major-dollar construction projects in the division. The biggest item on the CIP for next year is the construction of the division’s fourth middle school on the site of the James Blair administrative offices, which will have a projected cost of $25,798,759 for next year.
Tuttle’s proposed CIP for Williamsburg includes $2,584,000 for construction of the new middle school. That figure could change, as the joint-school contract agreed to by the city and county requires the two localities to negotiate a funding formula for new school construction.
In its budget for last year, James City County fully funded the schools’ operating request, but not its capital improvement request. WJCC had initially requested $23.95 million from the city and county to cover its CIP – with most of it going to a fourth middle school – but the Board of Supervisors only allocated $3 million.
Instead, the county set aside $28.5 million for “classroom expansions,” which forced Superintendent Steve Constantino to produce a reconfigured plan for the school to fit the new budget figure.
School Board members unanimously endorsed the proposal.
“We have to go out and convince the community that it’s our budget, and that it’s a budget of basic needs for us to run a school division,” board member Elise Emanuel (City of Williamsburg) said.
Williamsburg and James City County will finalize their budgets in May.
Correction 03/31/2015: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the Williamsburg-James City County Schools Chief Financial Officer. Her last name is Berta, not Bertha.
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