Buckingham supervisors advertise FY2026 budget; schools seek local funding for phased teacher pay changes

Buckingham County's Board of Supervisors voted on Monday to advertise the county's proposed fiscal 2026 operating budget and to advertise unchanged tax rates, while the school division presented a proposed 2025'—26 budget that relies on a mix of state, county and federal funding and seeks local support for a phased teacher pay-scale revision.

The votes came during a joint work session with the Buckingham County School Board. After presentations and discussion, supervisors approved publishing the budget and tax rates for the required public hearings and approved two small appropriations: increasing Christian Outreach's county funding and allocating $500 to the Town of Dillwyn's fall event program.

The proposed school budget and requested local contributions

Dr. Killen, Superintendent of Buckingham County Schools, opened the school's portion of the meeting with an overview of the division's enrollment and revenue picture. He said the division's enrollment for February stood at 1,733 students K'through'12 and that the division is using a state projection of 1,725 students to build the 2025'—26 budget.

"We have projected this budget based on the most conservative version, which is the governor's budget that was proposed on December 18," Dr. Killen said.

He provided the division's revenue mix for the proposed 2025'—26 budget: 60.2% state funding, 28.9% local recurring appropriation, 8.1% federal funding, 1.2% internal local funding and 0.8% other state grants. For the school cafeteria fund he said federal sources account for 71.2% and the division participates in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which the division has run since 2021.

Compensation and pay-scale proposals

Dr. Killen…