Mathews County supervisors debate FY26 budget as board agrees to study school consolidation

Mathews County—oard of Supervisors members spent several hours April 14 reviewing changes in the proposed FY26 budget, pressing staff about how revenue forecasts were calculated and debating whether the county should absorb school maintenance costs. The board voted unanimously to add a closed-session item to the agenda and later approved hiring an outside architectural firm to prepare a school-consolidation study.

The session opened with a presentation from county budget staff outlining changes between draft 3 and draft 4 of the financial plan. On the revenue side, staff raised the county—stimate for general property tax receipts and adjusted several local-tax line items to reflect FY24 actuals; the draft revenue total increased from about $23.08 million to $23.33 million. Supervisors repeatedly pressed county staff on assumptions behind personal-property and real-estate forecasts, noting that vehicle market corrections have made personal-property collections volatile.

Supervisors focused substantial attention on the school budget and on a proposal for the county to assume routine school maintenance. County staff and school officials described differences between the maintenance funding the school division previously had and the amount supervisors would be able to provide. The board approved a motion to hire an outside architecture/planning firm (identified in the meeting as RRNN Architects) to prepare a consolidation / facility-use study; the firm—stimate discussed in the meeting was about $35,000 and the motion passed on a roll-call vote.

Social services budget. County social-services staff told the board that the local share of Children nd Families funding (Children nd Services Act, CSA) must rise because the cost of private-day placements and therapeutic services has increased sharply; staff said current private-day placements can run "anywhere from $250 per day to $500 per day." The CSA request in the draft FY26 budget increased the local share compared with FY25, and social-services staff cautioned that further changes in state budget action could alter final requirements.

Library and tourism funding. County staff proposed an $82,000 cut to the public library budget; the library director told the board the cut would reduce state aid because the Library of Virginia matches local contributions. Staff estimated the state match reduction at roughly $25,200 under the proposed cut and warned that losing the state payment would undercut the intended savings.

Public-safety and dispatch. The sheriff nd board members discussed a higher sheriff—udget driven largely by court-security needs tied to an additional judge and by rising compensation for dispatchers. Supervisors and the sheriff also discussed a recently approved compensation-board increase (discussed in the meeting as an additional 6 percent on top of the usual 3 percent for certain dispatch positions) that the county will need to fund for county-paid dispatcher positions. The sheriff argued against regionalizing dispatch, saying local dispatchers know local roads and first responders; other board members asked staff to explore regional or shared models as a potential long-term cost option.

Information-technology budget and contracts. The board debated IT managed-services and license costs after staff said a vendor (identified in the meeting as Alliance) was originally procured below the threshold that required a formal request-for-proposal. Since then, recurring costs have risen into the range that would normally require competitive procurement. Staff said they were preparing to issue an RFP and had compared other vendors; the board discussed whether to hold managed-service and licensing estimates steady while the procurement process runs.

Votes at a glance - Amendment to agenda (closed session): The board approved an amendment to the agenda to add a closed-session item to discuss personnel matters under Virginia Code §2.2-3711(A)(1). Motion and second were introduced at the meeting; the roll-call vote recorded five ayes and no nays. - Authorization for a school consolidation study: The board voted to hire the outside architectural/planning firm discussed in the meeting (identified in the discussion as RRNN Architects) to prepare a school facilities/consolidation study; meeting participants discussed a firm estimate near $35,000. The motion passed on a roll-call vote.

What happened next and what matters Supervisors asked staff to supply additional line-item detail before the next work session and to identify where the county could find recurring savings without creating service gaps. Staff said they would: (1) break out maintenance and utilities more granularly for school facilities; (2) clarify revenue assumptions underlying personal-property and real-estate projections; (3) proceed with procurement advice and an RFP for IT managed services; and (4) return with refined cost estimates for dispatch and compensation changes. The school board and school staff will present options to the supervisors at a separate meeting; supervisors said they would seek a firm consolidation plan and cost projections before deciding on longer-term funding commitments.

Source note: This article is based on the Mathews County Board of Supervisors FY26 budget work session transcript for April 14, 2025, including staff presentations and roll-call votes recorded during the meeting.