Fluvanna schools present $57.3 million budget request citing pay, insurance and staffing gaps

The school division presented its adopted FY2026 spending request of $57,326,467 to the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, emphasizing three priority areas: compensation, health insurance and staffing.

School staff member (presenter) said the budget request reflects a focus on “compensation, health insurance, and then staffing,” and that the division used a multi-year salary study and extensive stakeholder feedback to shape the request.

The request includes the 3% salary increase included in the current state budget. The school presentation noted the division has fallen behind peer localities on pay and that a single 3% increase would not close existing gaps. The presenter described prior multi-year pay adjustments that ranged from minimum increases tied to the state raise to targeted steps that in previous years reached up to 13% (and for some teachers as much as 18%).

On health insurance, school staff told supervisors the division is planning for a roughly 10% vendor price increase and proposes to absorb 75% of the increase while passing the remainder to employees. Officials said absorbing 75% would cost the division about $450,000 of an estimated $600,000 total increase; the presentation itemized different scenarios for how costs would affect employee contributions based on plan enrollment.

Staffing requests seek to restore positions eliminated after the 2010 downturn and later reductions. The division outlined a mix of restructuring and new hires: eliminating an executive director of finance/instruction and director of instruction position while replacing them with an executive director of instruction and a director of finance (a financial wash), and requesting new or restored operational and student-support positions such as a second behavioral specialist, a director of human resources, a coordinator of instruction and a coordinator of alternative education and student services. Presenters said several of those roles previously existed in earlier organizational charts and that some intervention and instructional-support positions have been restored with ESSER funds but overall staffing remains lower than in peer divisions (Albemarle, Charlottesville, Louisa and Goochland) on several measures.

The presentation also itemized smaller program and operating changes: moving some 11-month positions (registrar at Carys Brook and a CTE specialist) to 12-month schedules, shifting some PSAT/SAT testing costs from the division to families, and budgeting for unpaid meal debt. Staff told supervisors the division anticipates at least $100,000 in unpaid meal debt if it does not pursue the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for universal free meals; they outlined the trade-offs between reimbursement rates and unpaid debt under each option.

The presenter said the division used recent updated salary-comparison data prepared by Mrs. Grasser and her team, and noted other local divisions have since adjusted pay (the presenter mentioned Charlottesville and Louisa as examples). The presentation included finer points from a multi-year staffing and salary study and explained the division modeled requested positions at step 10 for budgeting purposes.

At public comment, Ashley Crocker of 442 Justin Drive urged the Board of Supervisors to fully fund the school board—s request. "The budget proposed by the school board is not excessive. It is the bare minimum required to ensure our children receive a quality education," Crocker said, adding that programs including elementary Spanish, gifted education and SAT funding have been cut in past years.

Supervisors did not take a county-level funding vote for the schools during the meeting; the county budget process and public hearings are ongoing and county staff said they will incorporate the school division's adopted request into the county—s FY26 budget deliberations.

The school presentation packet includes tables showing compensation comparisons, the categorical budget summary and proposed personnel changes; staff said the full slide deck is available to supervisors for further review.