The York County School Board will head into its third joint work session with the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday with a budget proposal in tow.
School Board members approved Superintendent Victor Shandor’s $129.9 million budget for fiscal year 2016 by a 4-0 vote at its meeting Monday night. Board member Page Minter was not present at the meeting due to illness.
The proposed budget now moves on to the county’s Board of Supervisors for consideration. The county is one of the primary sources of funding for the school division, providing about half of YCSD’s budget, and the supervisors must approve any contribution of local dollars to the schools.
At nearly $130 million, the budget is about 3 percent larger than last year’s $125.5 million document.
YCSD’s proposed budget asks for $51,947,292 from York County for its operating expenses, a $1.03 million increase over what it received last year.
York County interim-County Administrator Mark Carter’s proposed budget provides the schools with an additional $361,000, but the county and the School Board remain about $671,000 apart.
Most of that new spending goes toward three areas Shandor has regularly identified as top priorities: employee compensation, transportation upgrades and technology updates.
The proposal outlines more than $2.4 million for salary increases for division employees, including a step increase for all eligible employees. It also allows for an additional step increase for employees whose salaries have been frozen at the same step since 2010.
From 2010 through 2013, YCSD provided no salary increases for employees, and did not issue a step increase from 2010-2014.
The budget also includes $500,000 for upgrading the school division’s aging bus fleet, including the purchase of four new buses at $100,000 a piece, and slating the remaining $100,000 for materials and equipment upgrades for the rest of the fleet. Twenty-three of YCSD’s buses currently in use exceed the traditional retirement benchmarks of 14 years of service or 200,000 miles.
Shandor’s third priority, technology upgrades, would receive $800,000 for new storage networks, servers and netscaler equipment, which allows access to the internet.
“This budget is fiscally responsible and is based on the needs of the school division,” Shandor said.
The $129.9 million proposed budget is actually slightly smaller than the draft Shandor initially put forward. The figure approved by the School Board was nearly a half million dollars less than the original number, after revised numbers showed unexpected reductions in the division’s health care costs.
The division managed to save $618,000 thanks to the lowered health care costs, a favorable state budget and an infusion of federal money. That $618,000 will cover some of the school’s request for additional county dollars.
The state budget approved Gov. Terry McAuliffe last Thursday included no cuts to YCSD’s funding and earmarked $535,383 for pay raises for faculty and staff, covering Shandor’s already-outlined compensation increases
The other increase in revenue came from a $300,000 payment by the federal government for Federal Impact Aid, which reimbursed the school division for property taxes lost due to the presence of federally owned land within the county.
The extra $300,000 in federal money and the previous savings of $318,000 through lower healthcare costs allowed the division to reduce its request for additional county funds from $1,650,848 to $1,032,848.
That reduction could be important as the School Board continues its budget discussions with the county.
Carter’s $133.4 million budget proposal for the county, which was unveiled March 18 and does not raise the property tax rate, includes a $361,000 increase in the county’s total funding to the school division over last year’s total.
The additional dollars brings the county’s contribution to YCSD’s operating budget to $51,275,444 — about $671,000 less than the division’s request — if the budget proposal is approved as-is.
Carter said he was hopeful year-end funds could be used as a one-time expenditure to cover YCSD’s proposed spending increases on technology and transportation.
Last year, disagreements between the two boards over a potential tax increase delayed the School Board from approving a budget until June.
The Board of Supervisors refused to levy the tax increase, leaving the school division $2 million short for the next school year. Then-YCSD Superintendent Eric Williams said at the time the Supervisors had “grossly oversimplified” YCSD’s needs.
Parents and teachers protested the Board of Supervisors for their decision, and YCSD cut multiple staff positions and delayed equipment upgrades to meet the shortfall.
School Board Chairman Mark Medford said communication between the two boards was vastly improved this year, as evidenced by the three joint work sessions.
“The dialogue we’re having with our counterparts this year is just awesome,” Medford said. “These meetings are really worthwhile.”
The School Board and Board of Supervisors will have a joint work session Tuesday night. The county is expected to finalize its budget in May.
Correction 04/01/2015: This article has been corrected to reflect the progression of YCSD employee compensation. Staff members received a step increase for fiscal year 2015.
Related Coverage:
- YCSD Superintendent Unveils $130 Million Budget for 2016
- YCSD Superintendent’s Budget Asks for Increase in County Funding
- York Supervisors to School Board: ‘Soft’ Numbers Won’t Finish Budget Talks
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- Proposed York Budget Keeps Taxes Level, Offers 3 Percent Raise for Employees
- York School Board Continues Work on Budget Despite Uncertainty About Local, State Funding Contributions
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