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Superintendent updates board on weather decisions, meal service and budget priorities including proposed 3% raise
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Perrigan briefed the board on recent weather-related scheduling decisions, the district’s expanded meal service, partnership opportunities for teacher residencies, and budget priorities that include a recommended 3% average raise using step‑20 adjustments and capital needs such as security vestibules and playground upgrades.
Superintendent Doctor Perrigan updated the Washington County School Board on operational decisions tied to winter weather, student services and the district’s budget priorities, saying the district plans to propose a 3% average raise and is preparing capital improvement requests for the coming fiscal year.
Perrigan said the division opened on “clear roads only” days when possible, which allowed the system to serve more than 6,000 students on some days who otherwise might have missed school. That approach, he said, enabled the division to deliver more than 35,000 meals during January’s weather disruptions. "A huge thank you goes out to our maintenance crew... transportation... and food service," Perrigan said.
Perrigan described a new teacher pipeline opportunity: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has invited the district to participate in a teacher residency that would allow local applicants to complete two years of college and licensure tuition-free. He also reported that the division is opposing Senate Bill 1102 (a pilot drug awareness curriculum targeted to Region 7), which Perrigan said was not developed in consultation with local divisions and is not aligned with the division’s curriculum approach.
On the budget, Perrigan told the board that the governor’s biennium budget already includes a 3% raise for Standards of Quality (SOQ) positions and that the division is recommending a 3% average raise across employees. He outlined two possible approaches to applying that raise to teacher pay: applying 3% across steps or indexing raises to step 20 of the scale to address compression. Perrigan said a 3% increase applied to steps would cost roughly $2.1 million; using step‑20 as the base would add roughly $148,000 more but would reduce discrepancies in higher steps.
The superintendent reviewed enrollment assumptions and capital needs: the division expects to budget for about 6,500 ADM (average daily membership) students for FY26; capital priorities include security vestibules, paving, inclusive playgrounds (roughly $500,000 each), a John Battle track resurfacing estimate of $450,000, and auditorium seat replacements across four high schools at about $720,000. Perrigan also described the district’s health insurance reserve: a current balance of about $6.2 million and a three‑month “safe harbor” need of $3.4 million. He said the district budgeted roughly $13.8 million in health insurance contributions for the year, including employee and district shares.
Board members asked for clarifications about how raises would be applied, the cost of proposed positions (for special education, deans of students, and band support), and options to repurpose existing funds. Perrigan said some proposed positions could be funded by grants or by reallocating existing resources but that final decisions will come through the finance committee and the board’s budget process. Key dates cited by Perrigan included a finance committee meeting with the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 12 and a school budget adoption timeline in May.
(Ending) Perrigan said staff will return to the finance committee and full board with recommended salary-scale adjustments, clarified enrollment numbers, and refined capital cost estimates.
