Warren County schools present superintendent's proposed budget; focus on teacher pay, reading remediation and positions

Superintendent I. Ballinger and school finance staff presented Warren County Public Schools' superintendent's proposed budget May 20, describing it as a needs-based plan driven by student needs, standards-of-quality requirements and recent changes in enrollment.

Key elements of the proposed budget presented to the Board of Supervisors included: - Compensation and benefits: The division proposed at least a 3% increase for all employees, with additional scale adjustments for some job classes, targeted pay-scale compressions and scale increases for bus drivers, speech therapists, school nurses and others. The proposal also assumed an employer-side health-benefit cost increase of about 10 percent. - Positions and program restorations: The budget asks to reinstate or repurpose held positions, including reading specialists (two repurposed positions to ensure each elementary and middle school has a reading specialist), special-education teachers at Blue Ridge Technical Center and additional staff to meet mandated services. The division proposed retaining a subset of instructional assistant/studentsupport positions funded previously by federal CARES/All In Virginia grants to continue reading remediation and small-group interventions. - Reading and literacy: The division reported that an August screen identified 527 K-3 students who required a reading intervention plan. The Virginia Literacy Act expansion will add grades 4-8 to the required program next year, increasing demand for reading specialists and small-group interventions. School leaders described student support coaches and instructional assistants as delivering 1:1 and small-group remediation tied to the science of reading and said they are already showing midyear improvements in some cohorts. - Textbooks and materials: The division recommended transferring the state textbook allocation ($426,973 per the presentation) from general operations into the district's textbook fund to allow a K-8 math adoption and to replenish a long-delayed social-studies adoption fund. - Enrollment and staffing context: The division reported total students served just over 5,000, an LCI (local composite index) of 0.4517 and changing demands including a rise in 504 plans and EL students. The presentation included historical context on salary steps (an example: a teacher starting salary rose from $39,008.56 in FY13 to $52,004.26 today) and noted that standards-of-quality changes require more positions than in prior years.

Budget number and county request: School finance staff said the proposed budget would require an increase in the county appropriation to balance operations. Under the numbers presented, that increase was roughly $4.2 million (staff noted the figure is subject to change pending the state budget and final audits). The division asked the board to consider the proposed package while noting it had maximized use of expiring federal grants (All In Virginia, CARES) and that some positions had been carried from grant funding in previous years.

Supervisors asked for additional line-item detail and comparative reports and requested staff provide the budget worksheets for closer review. The board also discussed timing for public hearings and the broader county budget process. No final appropriation was adopted at the meeting; supervisors directed finance staff to provide follow-up detail and to meet in a joint budget subcommittee session to prioritize requests.

Ending: School leaders invited supervisors to visit schools and see reading intervention work in person and said they will bring more detailed line-item reports and model scenarios (level-funded vs. proposed increases) to help the board evaluate tradeoffs.