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Dinwiddie school board approves proposed FY2026 budget, plans later amendments after state and county budgets
Summary
The Dinwiddie County School Board approved a proposed fiscal year 2026 operating and capital budget that includes a 3% across‑the‑board pay increase, additions to staff in special education and ESL, funding requests for security systems and capital projects, and plans to revisit the budget after the governor’s and county budgets are final.
The Dinwiddie County School Board on a unanimous vote approved a proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget that includes a 3% pay increase for all employee groups, a full‑time speech‑language pathologist conversion, an additional ESL teacher and requests to the county for capital transfers and security funding.
Superintendent Dr. Weston told the board the proposal is based on the December 2024 governor’s budget and that the division will return to the board for adjustments after the governor and county finalize their budgets. "Priority 1 is compensation. We are still have in the budget the 3% increase for all employees," Dr. Weston said, adding the division will release teacher contracts this week "with a disclaimer in all contracts that says as long as the funding is in place."
The proposal sets aside $667,000 for a security and systems management plan to allow school and county systems to communicate and requests county revenue transfers: roughly $18.3 million for fund 205, $1.5 million for compensation priorities and $667,000 for security, Dr. Weston said. The operating budget shows projected revenues of about $62.0 million and expenditures of about $62.5 million, with the greatest share of expenditures in instruction.
Board members pressed staff for debt‑service details. A staff member identified in the meeting as Christine said the debt service payments are driven primarily by the new high school and Sutherland Elementary and noted other prior borrowing that will be paid off by 2028; she said some refinancing on earlier loans runs through 2034.
The proposed capital plan calls for a $3.4 million county capital transfer for large capital work (including boiler replacements, key card systems, parking lots, deferred maintenance, the annex roof and buses) and the school capital fund expects to start with about $5.1 million, receive transfers and spend about $7.6 million next year with an estimated ending balance of about $1.4 million.
Board member motioned and seconded approval of the FY2026 proposed budget; the board recorded the motion as carried. The division said it will return with revised figures once the governor’s and county budgets are final and asked the board to approve the proposal tonight to allow the division to move forward with teacher contracts and other commitments.
The vote recorded on the motion was carried.
